Newspapers got kicked around in the Canadian Newspaper Association’s 2008 Extra Awards.
Quebec agency Palm Arnold won three Extras, including “Best of Show,” for its “Paper Ball” ad for the International Soccer Students Association in the annual awards honouring the country’s best newspaper creative.
The full page ad featured the familiar black and white pattern of a soccer ball, with the instructions “crumple and play” at the bottom. The ad also won gold Extras in the “Best use of Media” and “Local Ad” categories. The ad “combined creative brilliance with an innovative use of newspaper,” said co-chairs Tony Miller, partner, creative director of Smith Roberts Creative Communications and Alex Bernier, copywriter at Sid Lee.
Vancouver’s Rethink led all agencies with nine Extra awards, including a pair of golds in the “Entertainment and Media Outlets” category for longtime client Playland.
The ads, “Frank” and “Monkey,” showed queasy stuffed animals vomiting up their stuffing. Rethink also won a gold Extra in the “Food, Beverages and Drug” category for its “Easy Rest” ad for vitamin manufacturer Sisu. The ad showed a man, apparently waking up from a deep sleep, surprised to find himself in a morgue and wearing a toe tag.
DDB’s Toronto office and Leo Burnett took home eight Extras apiece, followed by Sid Lee with six and Smith Roberts Creative Communications, DDB Vancouver, LG2 and Taxi 2 with four.
Calgary agency Wax won two gold Extras in the “Auto Dealer” and “Local Single” categories for its “Wolf” ad for client Calgary Harley Davidson. The ad, promoting Harley rentals, shows a sheep wearing a wolf’s skin.
LG2 won a gold Extra in the “Food Beverages and Drug” category for its “Sign Here” ad for Nestlé Canada’s Nescafé brand. The ad shows a form bearing the instruction “sign here” beneath a blank line, upon which someone clearly in dire need of coffee has signed the word “here.”
DDB Toronto office won a pair of gold Extras in the “Public Service and Advocacy” and “National Campaign” categories, for its “18 Lives” and “3 Lives” ads for Canadian Blood Services. The first showed blank spaces on the obituary page, while the bottom of the page features the Canadian Blood Services logo accompanied by the message “In one year, a blood donor could save up to 18 lives. That’s the power of blood” followed by contact information.
Gold in the “Retail Single” category went to Montreal’s Sid Lee for its “Nails” ad for Réno-Dépôt, which showed a largely blank page with the exception of a hammer and a series of badly bent nails at the bottom. A total of 60 Extras were awarded including 11 gold, 23 silver and 26 bronze.
