HONG KONG: BBDO romped home with a haul of 33 prizes, including
best of show for its usually wacky work for telecoma operator Sunday, at
the 4As creative awards.
The coveted Kam Fan honour went to an ad for Sunday's tariff promotion -
"Meeting Together" - which also won a gold in the telecoms TV category
for BBDO.
More than 180 prizes were presented at the awards, which saw Bates
finishing a close second to BBDO, with 31 awards. Bates received two
gold awards for its work for Time magazine - "Our Time" - and Motorola
T1891 promotion - "Man/Woman/Family". Leo Burnett struck gold with its
work for Standard Chartered Bank Marathon and cosmetic brand SKII Repair
C's campaign.
This year's show was marked by controversy when the 4As was widely
condemned for its racially-derogatory entry kit, which saw one agency
threatening to pull out of the association.
Alongside the awards for creative excellence, the 4As said it would be
staging its biggest-ever career road show to attract new talent into the
industry. Association chairman Jeffrey Yu said a four-month training
programme would be organised to offer "newcomers a broad perspective of
how the different advertising disciplines work".
However, the move comes amid worsening economic conditions, underlined
by almost daily reports of job losses from all sectors of the
economy.
But, Margaret Wong, administration director for 4As, said the
organisation would press on regardless. "Yes, we are in hard times right
now but we don't know what the situation will be in six months' time or
even a year later. We have to be prepared," she said.
Yu did, however, issue a warning to those considering an advertising
career: "If you only want to leave the office on time and hope for good
pay immediately, you had better not try to enter the industry."
- Additional reporting by Christy Liu.
2001 4AS CREATIVE AWARDS TALLY
Agency Points Kam Gold Silver Bronze Merit Total
Fan Award
BBDO 133 1 4 11 6 11 33
Bates HK 83 2 5 10 14 31
Leo Burnett 73 2 4 6 16 28
Euro RSCG 69 1 6 5 6 18
O&M HK 66 1 7 3 3 14
Saatchi HK 40 0 1 9 9 19
TBWA 29 1 2 4 1 8
Grey HK 18 0 3 0 1 4
Saatchi GZ 17 0 0 4 1 5
Lowe Lintas 9 0 0 2 1 3