Agencies from the Middle East and North Africa failed to win any yellow Pencils at the D&AD awards in London this year.
Out a total haul of 14 – the second highest number of Pencils ever won by the region – only three were given graphite status, the equivalent of a silver.
Graphite winners from the United Arab Emirates included Impact BBDO for ‘Give mom back her name’ in the use of digital and social media category, and Memac Ogilvy for Ikea’s ‘It’s that affordable’ in the poster advertising category.
J. Walter Thompson Cairo also won a graphite Pencil in the craft for design category with the Nefertari typeface, part of the ‘Downtown Fonts’ campaign for Al Ismaelia for Real Estate Development.
The other 11 were awarded wood, the equivalent of winning in the bronze category.
The graphite and bronze equivalent wood categories replaced the ‘in book’ and ‘nomination’ levels last year. Previously, the only pencils available were yellow, white and black.
Out of a total of 749, judges awarded, two black pencils, three white and 61 yellow across the board.
The two blacks were given to UK start-up What3Words and Tokyo agency, iyamadesign, while Y&R New Zealand topped the agency leader board with six yellows.
