Unhealthy Obsession

The Goafest， the Indian advertising industry’s annual national awards ceremony， was rocked by complaints about voting irregularities in March 2010. According to a jury member who was present there， a fellow jury member and chief creative officer of a leading advertising agency was caught on camera， voting for his own agency’s work. The scandal was kept as quiet as possible， but the awards committee did all it could to ensure fairness. It appointed a non-creative person as its head to ensure neutrality. Jury members were barred from voting on their agencies’campaigns， and every entry had to have the client’s approval.

“It is this approval that saved my skin this time，” says a Shashi Sinha， CEO of IPG Mediabrands， who chairs the committee for the Abby awards， billed the Oscars of advertising in India. He is referring to the Ford Figo campaign that sparked outrage around the world. It consisted of three posters， one of which showed former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi driving a Ford Figo that had a group of semi-clad women gagged and bound in the boot. Sinha says advertising agency JWT India had entered 13 campaigns for Ford Figo and withdrew all of them a couple of days before the controversy went public. The fiasco cost JWT India’s creative head， Bobby Pawar， his job. Vijay Simha Vellanki， creative director of Blue Hive， JWT’s internal agency which manages the Ford account， also lost his job.

IPG Mediabrands’ Sinha says none of the three objectionable advertisements made it to the final round， but adds that half the campaigns are submitted for the Abbys simply to gain entry to the awards function.

The obsession with awards has been simmering for years. In 2006， JWT India entered a campaign for Levi’s jeans， featuring two stick characters， which won awards at the Goafest and Cannes. But few remember seeing it in mainstream media. For every popular Cadbury or Pepsi campaign that wins awards， there is a string of obscure campaigns that hardly anyone has heard of. Such ‘scam’ campaigns make it to award shows with the permission of the clients.

“They are edgy and don’t fit into the cli-ent’s communication plan，”says Santosh Padhy， cofounder of Taproot India. However， he adds， clients don’t mind such campaigns being submitted for an award.

One of the criteria for entering an advertisement for an award is that it should have been released in at least one publication or on TV. Sinha says： “They do so in obscure regional newspapers. Some of them even have special rates for December and January， when most of these ads are released.”

Such campaigns， known in the industry as “proactive”work， have been a globally accepted phenomenon for years. But of late， there has been a surge. “There was just a handful of pieces that would be part of the award shows，” says Sajan Raj Kurup， founder of CreativeLand Asia. “But of late， up to 95 per cent of the work seems to be created only for awards. And there are agencies that run and fund a whole machinery within their organisation to churn out these pieces.” CreativeLand Asia boycotted the recently concluded Goafest， citing the increasing number of such ‘scam’awards in the competition.

According to a senior advertising professional， who does not want to be identified， at least 650 of the 715 entries by a leading agency were created only for the Abby awards. Goafest 2013 got 4，300 entries， including 387 from JWT India， 420 from DDB Mudra and 470 from McCann Erickson.

Awards can， of course， help an agency attract talent and clients. But there are unsavoury side-effects， such as the Ford Figo campaign fiasco and the erosion of the Abbys’credibility.

A mid-level creative at a leading agency says his organisation encourages people to come up with edgy campaigns that can compete for awards. CreativeLand Asia’s Kurup says agencies put pressure on their staff to win awards. “Many have awards as criteria for remuneration and incentives. Some senior management’s variable pay depends on their agen- cy’s standing in the tally.”

Piyush Pandey， Chairman of Ogilvy， says： “Awards are a celebration of good work， but they can’t be an objective. If you create a campaign like Cadbury or Fevicol， it will automatically win awards.” He is referring to Cadbury Silk TV commercials that show the chocolate distracting people from what they are doing， and a Fevicol commercial featuring an egg so tough that it breaks a saucepan.

Vivek Nayer， Chief Marketing Officer（Automotive Division）， Mahindra & Mahindra， says creativity is one thing， but scale also matters.“When I， as a CMO， approve any ad campaign to enter into an ad festival， I should be able to stand on the terrace and shout to the world about it，” he says. “One-off campaigns only for the purpose of winning awards will lead to more controversial campaigns.”

But many say events such as Goafest recognise originality， uniqueness and execution. Prathap Suthan， Managing Partner of Bang In the Middle， an advertising agency， says the Abbys are for creativity. “For effectiveness， there’s the Effies，” he adds.

Draft FCB-Ulka CEO Ambi Parameswaran says the creative community does not want method in the madness. He says when he was president of the Ad Club of Bombay， which organises the Goafest， he tried to increase oversight by requiring award entries to be authorised by the client on stamp paper， so that senior managers were involved in authorising work.“No sooner had I suggested it than there were protests from the creative fraternity，” he says. Sinha says that “the creative guys don’t want scale”， and adds the Abby awards committee worked hard to increase transparency this year.

If anything good comes of the Ford Figo fiasco， it may be that agencies and clients will be more careful about festival entries and do less proactive work. Sinha says four winners withdrew from this year’s awards， as they had doubts about their entries. Change may be afoot already.