Leo Burnett and Y&R Dubai have won the region’s first ever yellow Pencils at the D&AD awards in London.
Leo Burnett Dubai’s ‘du Tuesday’ work directed by Ali Ali won seven pencils, including a prestigious yellow for film direction. Y&R’s yellow was for Global Export’s ‘Little Books of Big Consequences’, which won in the design category for illustration.
Only 44 yellow Pencils were awarded this year and five black – the highest accolade – out of a total of 22,000 pieces of work from 85 countries.
Kalpesh Patankar, executive creative director at Y&R Dubai, said: “D&AD is undoubtedly the hardest show to win, and there’s a lot of prestige and pride that comes with the coveted yellow Pencil. It’s about striking the right balance between the idea and craft. This year was a great one for the UAE and it’s good to see us all moving forward together with so many wins.”
Bechara Mouzannar, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett MENA, said: “The D&AD yellow Pencil is, by tradition, the hardest award to win in the world. Our combined campaigns for du Tuesday – 2014 and 2015 – have been recognised by D&AD for their excellence in film advertising craft, winning seven Pencils, including a yellow one for direction, which truly rewards the art and craft of Ali Ali and of his co-director Maged Nassar.
“Du becomes the most awarded commercial brand from the Middle East internationally, and I feel proud to see a brand that bets on creative excellence and on an innovative form of storytelling winning at almost every big show in the world.”
In total the UAE won 15 Pencils, including 10 wood (equivalent to bronze) and three graphite (equivalent to silver). The old system of having ‘in book’ and ‘nomination’ had been scrapped this year. Impact BBDO won two graphite Pencils for its ‘Your destiny’ campaign for Commercial Insurance. Picking up wood Pencils were DDB, JWT Dubai and Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai.
