China takes top NY prize

Ogilvy & Mather Beijing was awarded China's first-ever 'best of the best' accolade when it was handed the Grand Prize for a WWF public service ad at the recent New York Festivals Awards.

In all, Asia-Pacific collected a total of 253 gongs at the show this year, in addition to China's Grand Prize, taking home 14 golds, 24 silvers, 23 bronzes and 191 finalist nods.

India, Australia and Japan led the region for gold awards, with Hong Kong and Singapore also among the winners.

China also won golds through Guantang Advertising and Publicis China; in all, mainland-based agencies collected 33 of the 253 honours.

Ogilvy Beijing's winning 'Make a stand' campaign for WWF featured outdoor posters on opposite sides of a street in Beijing.

The artwork depicted hunters shooting at animals on the other side of the road, thereby asking passers-by to literally make a stand by putting themselves between the hunters and the animals.

"This campaign showed a lot of unique qualities — by spanning a street it involved the audience — and won because it was very fresh. My goal is to do work that makes a difference and socially creates international awareness," said Nils Andersson, executive creative director, Ogilvy Group Greater China.

Meanwhile, another China gold, by Guantang Advertising for local cosmetic brand, Longli Qi, made it the first non-network agency to win a gold award.

"Most imported sun protection lotions claim to give consumers beautiful, tanned skin. However, most Chinese don't like to tan; they want their skin to stay white. Thus, we created the concept 'sun block'," said John Dao, deputy general manager, Guantang.

The creative features young adults 'tanning' and playing volleyball in a darkened beach scene.

China's other gold was won by Publicis — also for WWF —  titled 'Match'. Japan went home with golds for Hakuhodo's corporate image work for Toyota, titled 'Humanity'; Hitachi's outdoor guerilla marketing blitz and Tugboat Tokyo's cosmetic packaging design. McCann Erickson Hong Kong earned gold in sound design for Cathay Pacific Airways 'Born to Move'. And, from Singapore, Discovery Asia's DM piece, 'Impression', for Animal Planet, also struck gold.

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