Asia shines at Cannes with a haul of 16 Lions

Jury president, Dan Wieden, president of Wieden & Kennedy, Portland said the work was strong, despite the unfavourable economic conditions: "The jury saw some very interesting work from Asia and that is reflected in the Lions awarded. But I do believe that bad economic times create an environment where people have a lot to lose. This increases the need for certainty, which increases the use of testing, which increases the amount of time we double think and triple-think what we're about to do."

Six Lions were presented to Asian agencies in the TV category with Thailand scoring particularly well with a Gold, a Bronze and a Bronze Lion campaign.

BBDO Bangkok won the Gold for 'Belly button face' for Skyline Unity's Giffarine EQ-10 while J Walter Thompson won the Bronze campaign for Chiclets Stick ads, 'Home', 'Park' and 'Beach'. The agency also won a Bronze Lion for Nippon Paint, 'Timeless beauty'.

A Silver Lion was awarded to Dentsu West Japan for Matsudaira Real Estate 'Golf' and Japan picked up another Bronze with D'Try Tokyo's 'Partner' spot for UFJ Tsubasa Securities. And from Singapore, BBH won a Bronze for its 'Hunchback' spot for Unilever Philippines.

India had one of its most successful years to date, picking up three Gold Lions, two Silver Lions and a Bronze Lion.

It won Gold in the outdoor category with Ogilvy & Mather India's 'Cancer cures smoking' work for the Cancer Patients Aid Association. 'Asterisk', also part of the Cancer Patients campaign, won a Silver Lion in the outdoor and the press categories. The other Golds went to McCann-Erickson India which won a Gold Lion Campaign in Press for Coca-Cola India with 'Man in the shadow' and 'Barber shop' and to Ogilvy & Mather India. O&M won a Gold in the direct category for 'Blank magazine' for Businessworld.

The outdoor and press categories proved particularly strong for Asia.

In addition to the Gold in outdoor, there was one Silver for Nike Sports Korea's 'Nike world cup campaign' through LG AD and four Bronze Lions.

In addition to India's Gold and Silver in press, there were two other Silvers and one Bronze. Saatchi & Saatchi Hong Kong won a Silver for Oil of Olay's 'Nought to sixty' while its Malaysia office won a Campaign Silver for Look 'Beauty'. There were no winners in the cyber category but three winners in media, for TBWA\Korea; Euro RSCG Partnership, Singapore and Dentsu Japan. Other winners in the direct category, were Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore which won Gold for its Navy work and Euro RSCG Singapore's Dr Inkbeer work which won bronze.

However, Mark Fiddes, creative partner of KLP/Euro RSCG, said the quality of work was impressive. "The work was memorable and bold and a great improvement on last year."