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McCann Erickson claims 'Green Agency of the Year' at this year's Olive Crowns

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Whilst there are hundreds of awards shows held annually in the world of advertisement, very few actually mean something to the wider world. The International Advertising Association's 'Olive Crown' awards however, is the only awards ceremony in Asia that specifically commemorates work done in the effort of making the planet a better place to live. The awards were held in Mumbai on Friday last week (March 15) at the Palladium Hotel in Lower Parel and also saw the release of the 'Ungli Uthao' campaign, which urges young people to vote in the upcoming elections.

“The awards aim to recognise great work done in the creative field for a cause.” Srinivasan K Swamy

Srinivasan K Swamy, president of the Indian chapter of the IAA, has said of the awards that they aim to “Recognise great work done in the creative field for a cause.” The awards don't ask (and have never asked) for an entry fee and has always looked for “Campaigns which were run as a cause.” This year the awards were given away by Amitabh Bachchan and the ceremony was attended by industry stalwarts such as Ogilvy and Mather's Piyush Pandey, Madison BMB's Sam Balsara and 9XM's Pradeep Guha, amongst others. The jury consisted of industry peers Sonal Dabrai(of DDB), Bobby Pawar (Publicis), Ray Nair (Madison BMB) and KV Sridhar from Leo Burnett.

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This year's ceremony was more special significant than ever before thanks to the presence of IAA international president Faris Abouhamad and performances by Bollywood singer Shalmali Kholgade and Israeli mentalist Roy Zaltman. The big winner on the night was McCann Erickson, who walked away with the much coveted 'Green Agency of the Year' award. McCann also won a silver in the 'Press Service' category for their work with Tulika Publishers and golds in both the 'Press Corporate' category and the 'Campaign of the Year' category thanks to their work on the 'Wake Up Cleaner' campaign with Karnataka State Government.

As well as giving away the awards on the evening, Amitabh Bachchan was also made an honorary IAA member

Other winning agencies included DraftFCB Ulka, who claimed a silver award for Zee Cafe, DDB Mundra, who scooped a silver award in the 'Green Band of the Year' category for the Help desk campaign, HUL who claimed gold in the same category for 'Project Sunlight', and Dentsu Creative Impact, who won a silver 'Campain of the Year' award for their Tetrapack work. The final awards of the evening went to McCann (the aforementioned prize of the evening) and Karnataka State Government, who won 'Green Advertiser of the Year'.

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Meanwhile, individuals were also soloed out for their work, with Kartik Ramnathkar receiving the 'Green Hungama' award for individuals with great potential and Maneka Gandhi, a fearless campaigner in the field of environmental protection, walking away with the 'Green Crusader' award. Gandhi accepted the award gracefully, thanking the industry in the process, though cautioned attendees about the potentially cruel implications of using animals in advertising. As well as giving away the awards on the evening, Amitabh Bachchan was also made an honorary IAA member. He said that he feels “Advertisements change the way people look at things,” and that the Olive Crown awards were an innovative scheme that should be “Applauded and lauded for making an effort to create an environment of change.”

Official IAA Website

Official McCann Erickson Website

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance copywriter and resolutely environmentally conscious individual, who always makes an extra effort to recycle, even when it's inconvenient!

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