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Creativity scores at Cannes
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The Red Cross fundraiser campaign won ad agency JWT an award at Cannes
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CAN DO IT Charles Victor and Joono Simon of JWT PHOTO: M. SRINATH
Cannes: The dream of every advertiser. And Senior Creative Director Joono Simon and Creative Supervisor-Copy Charles Victor of JWT, Chennai, have just won themselves a Silver Lion in the press category.
Called, `Give', the fundraiser campaign for the Red Cross is quite Zen-like in its simplicity. A red cross that on closer inspection is an open box. "When you give, we give," says the copy. "When we made the ad, we knew it was a sparkling idea and it's the power of an idea that gets recognised at Cannes," says Joono.
Five print nominations
"We haven't started celebrations, we will when we get our hands on it," says Charles. The ad men are in Mumbai and have been too busy to celebrate. But that hasn't stopped the rest at ad agency JWT from feeling "on top of the world". "We've got five nominations in print, the highest in the country for any one office," says Indu Balachandran, VP and Executive Creative Director.
Anita Gupta, Senior VP and GM, believes introspection from the agency has paid off. "We have been systematically looking at all its craft and simplifying it, "chiselling off all the rock that is not the statue". With five nominations from ten entries, it's a strike rate that JWT, Chennai can be proud of.
But you would imagine the creative output in India would score many more nominations than Thailand, Chile or Brazil. With about 660 entries, surely India can do better? Anita believes that it's time for India to study the benchmark for advertising excellence. "These are changing times in advertising, what's timeless though, is the idea!," says Joono. Local idiom is not an issue, true communication does not need a language. "We used to think that about Bollywood, until movies like `Monsoon Wedding' and `Bend it like Beckham' came along," she says.
"In the last few years, Indians have been making an impact at international forums, and it should help now that we regularly have Indian members on the jury," adds Charles, promising more lions next year.
MEERA MOHANTY
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