News and views on visual communications from the writers of Creative Review

D&AD Awards: The Gold Rush

creativereview 15/05/08, 22:59

Earlier this evening a record six Black Pencils were handed out in an unprecedented act of judicial generosity at D&AD’s 2008 Awards. Apple scooped two (making it the biggest single winner of the coveted Gold Award to date, with six since 1999) and it was a very good year for advertising categories, with The Partners’ Grand Tour initiative for The National Gallery picking up a Gold; and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Projector Inc. also winning for online campaigns (no Graphics awards though, of which more here and here). Oh and that Gorilla made a brief appearance as well…

Winning Gold in Online Advertising was Projector Inc.’s Uniqlock widget; a downloadable video clock for use on blogs (see CR’s January edition and story here). You can get it here: uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/

The Partners was awarded Gold in Poster Advertising for its Grand Tour campaign for The National Gallery, which saw copies of famous artworks appearing on the streets of London.

Apple did well, securing a black pencil in Product Design for both its latest version of the iMac and, predictably, the iPhone.

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners’ Milk: Get the Glass online game won Gold in the Websites category. The aim of the “advergame” was to help the Adachi family to steal milk from Milkatraz island. Have a go youself, here: gettheglass.com

And finally, Fallon London’s Gorilla commercial for Cadbury’s won a Gold in TV and Cinema Advertising. Well deserved and no surprise, really – we saw that one “coming in the air tonight”. *Sorry*

One question: do so many Golds devalue the currency?

Posted in Advertising Graphic Design Photography Illustration Type Commercials Music Videos Websites Magazines/Papers Books TV

(3 comments)

I love that Gorilla, and as a short film it is undoubtedly a mini masterpiece, but I do wonder how effective it was as an actual advert. It raises a smile, but does it actually make you want to go out and buy Dairy Milk? I imagine it had more of an impact on sales of Phil Collins CDs than chocolate bars.

Posted by Daniel on 16/05/08, 11:46 am

I agree with Daniel. A gorilla playing drums? Really? That’s the new high bar for creative thinking? I fear the floodgates are officially open.

One interesting thing to ponder is whether or not this ad would have been so successful if not for the internet following. I saw this spot on YouTube and it was passed around with the same fervor as the Mentos+Coke vids or any other meme. However, I doubt if any of those millions of viewers bought chocolate as a result. Maybe “Chocolate Rain” would have been a better song choice.

Posted by Prescott Perez-Fox on 16/05/08, 3:55 pm

Most undeserving pencil? Surely it was BBH’s ‘Get in There’ mobile marketing pencil for Lynx. A bunch of sound effects that you download from a website? That’s not mobile marketing! Very lame. Get a grip.

Posted by Grumpyface on 16/05/08, 4:00 pm

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