Let good times roll, let there be more awards

Ramesh Narayan

This newspaper reported talks to finalise whether there would be two awards in the advertising industry, or just one. First, let’s pose the question: Why awards? The answers are simple.

You celebrate excellence in creative advertising. You also pad your agency’s credentials presentation, and bargain for better jobs or at least better increments.

You even have an excuse to party. If you needed one. One more reason. You could now convince the client to actually pay for some releases of your award-winning creative and hopefully pay back your media-partner-in-crime.

Jokes apart, why is there this debate about whether one should have the ABBY and the AAAI award (by whatever name and shape it might be called) or just one of the two, or some hybrid mutated form that might evolve if you married the two? Some more questions.

Why does O&M not participate in the AAAI awards? I think it is because many years ago, the AAAI scrapped its entire awards function after the judging process was completed and O&M was all set to canter away with most of the awards, apparently to send a message to the industry that scam ads were not acceptable.

Of course, Piyush Pandey is too much of a gentleman, and too adroit a corporate leader to ever admit that as the reason. He will keep saying that there is some global policy that they should enter in only one award per country.

Why did Leo Burnett and Ambience and a couple of others stop participating in the AAAI awards a few of years ago? I think it is because many of their entries got removed by a scrutiny committee that was in existence then.

So why did they continue to participate in the ABBY awards in those years despite the same entries being removed by a similar scrutiny committee in the Ad Club Bombay?

That is the power of the ABBY brand. And why did they come back to the AAAI awards afterwards? Probably because the scrutiny committee got scrapped. But why did Balki stop participating in the ABBY awards?

Probably because he had some problems with the judging process. Then why did he pull out of the AAAI awards after participating for a couple of years?

I don’t know. Maybe he had problems with their judging process as well. You must remember he won most of the awards there, and he is an honest man. But we still haven’t answered the question why just one award?

In a country where awards are the most lucrative business model for most presenters and the most cherished possession of most recipients why stop with one? One good award deserves another. Let the good times roll.

(The author is an advertising industry veteran)