Y&R Wins Two Grand Prix At New York Festivals‏

Tony Granger, Global Chief Creative Officer of Y&R today announced that Y&R took home two Grand Prizes at New York Festivals. Y&R Cape Town won a Grand Prize for Safety Labs “Hope Soap” and Y&R Melbourne & Y&R Singapore for Defense Force Recruiting’s “Air Force FM” respectively.

Y&R Cape Town’s “Hope Soap” campaign brought home the Grand Prize in the Avant–Garde category, representing the highest award within that category which recognizes and rewards a non-traditional approach to a brief. The campaign also won a First Prize Award in the Direct Collateral: Products and Services category, Second Prize Award in the Public Service Announcements: Direct Marketing category and the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) Second Prize Award.

“Air Force FM,” a joint collaboration between Y&R Melbourne and Y&R Singapore for Defense Force Recruiting, won the Grand Prize in the Direct and Collateral category. The campaign also won a Second Prize in the same category, as well as a Third Prize for “The Maths Ad Exam.”   

Tony Granger said, “I’m really proud of Y&R South Africa, Y&R Melbourne and Y&R Singapore. Hope Soap demonstrates an inventive solution to a local challenge and I’m so pleased to see it gaining global recognition. Air Force FM was a great collaboration between our agencies in Melbourne and Singapore and that really delights me – the success of this campaign is a reflection of the way we work as a collaborative creative community across offices and regions.

Additionally, Y&R took home five other second prizes – three for UNICEF out of Chile in outdoor and print, one for Ole Sports Newspaper out of Argentina in Film and one for Microsoft out of Colombia in Branded Entertainment.

Hope Soap, a project born out of a need to help combat the hygiene crisis in Blikkiesdorp in the Western Cape, features translucent bars of soap with a small toy inside to encourage kids in disadvantaged areas to wash their hands more frequently.

Air Force FM, came out of a need for students to prove their problem solving and circuitry skills – wiring, folding, gluing, testing and soldering the components to complete the radio successfully. George Patterson Y&R sent engineering students all the parts they needed to assemble a functioning radio, except the instructions.  Once assembled, each radio was tuned to Air Force FM, GP Y&R’s dedicated radio station created just for this campaign. The station broadcasted the ad on loop, instantly offering successful students a fast track to an exciting career.