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Johannesburg - Three agencies are still in the running for creative agency of the year, but it's going to be hard to dislodge TBWA Hunt Lascaris from top spot.
A single campaign, based on a single big idea, has pole-vaulted Hunts to the top of the creative rankings for the year so far, while earning it top spot in the outdoor, direct marketing, design and media categories.
With the Loeries only a few weeks away, it's theoretically possible for one of the other two leading agencies - Net#work BBDO Johannesburg and Ogilvy Johannesburg - to take the lead, but the likelihood of this happening is remote. Only the Loeries carry enough points for either agency to close the gap, but history is not on their side.
In the last two years the difference between the top Loerie agency and the second placed one was remarkably similar - 1 375 points in 2007 and 1 350 in 2008. It would be an extraordinary feat for second-placed Net#work to overhaul Hunt Lascaris when it is currently standing 3 400 points adrift, or for Ogilvy Johannesburg to achieve the same thing from 3 450 points back.
Categories where Hunt Lascaris didn't take top spot were radio, press, and TV/cinema.
Possibly the most disappointing category is TV and cinema, where South African achievements are pitiful. At Cannes we got only two finalists, submitted by DDB (for MTN) and FoxP2 for Frisco coffee.
The media category was another which reflected badly on SA agencies. The aforementioned Hunt Lascaris campaign won two Gold Lions (best use of mixed media and best publications and media) and two bronzes (best use of newspaper and best use of ambient media) for this campaign for a total of 1 950 points.
Three other agencies featured in the points table, each having a single shortlisting, but none of them was a specialist media-only agency.
The Hunt Lascaris campaign was for The Zimbabwean, an exile newspaper opposed to Robert Mugabe's regime, and the agency came up with the great idea of using Zimbabwean currency, in trillion-dollar and other denominations, as the sheet for a billboard. On the billboard were such slogans as "Thanks to Mugabe this money is like wallpaper".
As is so often the case with ideas that capture the imagination so completely, it's timing and political aptness were perfect. Opponents of Mugabe's undemocratic rule were drawn to the idea, voting for it in the Cannes judging sessions, and (in the case of those involved in Zimbabwe) funding the campaign.
Mugabe was again the focus of world attention and in many cases disgust that his dictatorial activities have been rewarded by endorsing his continued leadership of the seemingly legitimate government.
- Fin24.com