The top honour at Monday night’s Campaign Direct Awards went to Euro RSCG London, which won best overall execution for “artery” for the British Heart Foundation.
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The anti-smoking campaign used a combination of press, posters, digital and PR to support its TV work, art directed by Dave Shelton and written by Liz Whiston.
Fresh from winning a gold Direct Lion and a silver in the Film category at Cannes last month, “artery” also scooped the best use of broadcast gong.
The jury member Rory Sutherland, the executive creative director of OgilvyOne, commented: “Hitherto, anti-smoking arguments have been presented statistically. But this campaign shows that cigarettes do harm by accretion, which is a much stronger argument. ‘Artery’ has re-invented the category. It’s the easyJet of anti-smoking advertising.”
Saatchi & Saatchi’s “scent strip” for the homelessness charity St Mungo’s, which featured a strip smelling of urine, won best use of press and best use of inserts.
M&C Saatchi and Publicis Dialog also landed two silvers each: M&C’s “taxi cards” for cabnumbers.com won best use of outdoor and best travel and leisure campaign, and Publicis Dialog’s “hype” for Hewlett Packard won silver in best use of electronic media and best IT and consumer durables campaign.
In another year in which ad agencies seemed to dominate, winning more than a third of the awards, Saatchi & Saatchi also won best use of copy with “grad pack”, written by Guy Bradbury and Eoghain Clare.
Of the standard this year, the chairman of the judges, Ian Howarth, the head of creative at WWAV Rapp Collins, said: “There was simply too much ‘OK’ work – work that lacked confidence, character and any of that all-important cut-through.
“Why? It seems the industry is in fear. Perhaps the tough economic climate we have all endured is making us play safe. Whatever the reason, we must lose this mentality or we will get stuck in a spiral going only one way.”
Tullo Marshall Warren won the best drinks, grocery and household campaign with its “Irish rover” St Patrick’s Day campaign for Guinness.
The agency and Guinness were also recognised by Royal Mail as the client-agency team that has contributed most to the development of the mail medium in recent years.
Richard Roche, Royal Mail’s head of media assets, said: “Customers look forward to receiving communications through the mail.”