Don’t mistake last night’s 25 gold jacket-adorning Bessies winners for participants in a Michael Jackson tribute. These big-ticket winners were deemed by the Television Bureau of Canada to be the creative minds behind the best television and digital films produced this year.
It’s not every award show you get to go home with a trophy and blinging jacket in tow, but that was the case for agencies such as BBDO, Taxi and Sid Lee at the 50th anniversary award show held at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
Two agencies shared the three Best of Show awards. First up, BBDO pocketed the Best of Show Television award for the FedEx “Gimmicks” commercial, which cast a band of memorable characters to represent the company’s different services, as well as the Best of Show Digital for comparing “Social Smoking” to other ridiculous behaviours, such as farting in public, for the Ontario Ministry of Health.
The third Best of Show Craft Film (which also received two Golds) went to Cundari for BMW’s “Bullet” spot, which captured the brand’s M5 vehicle driving through walls and bursting oversized water balloons in slow motion.
Of the 11 agencies to take home a Gold trophy and jacket last night, BBDO claimed the most, with five in total. These included four for the “Social Smoking” campaign for the Ontario Ministry of Health and another for “Gimmicks” for FedEx.
Taxi and Taxi 2 each took home two prizes. The former agency snagged two Golds for the “Ribnecks” commercial it produced for Boston Pizza, while the latter won a Gold for the “Eye of the Squirter” spot for Mio and another for the “Swish” commercial, also for the Kraft-owned water enhancer brand.
Grey, which was just named Agency of the Year at the ADCC awards show last week, claimed two Gold prizes, one for “It’s time for Gun Sense” ad created for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense and another for Salvation Army’s “Small Dreams” spot.
Also among the few to take home two Golds were Sid Lee and Dare. Sid Lee Toronto won top honours for Sport Chek’s “Let it Snow” spot, which focuses on the anticipation of the first snowfall with winter athletes getting ready for the season, as well as for the “Brand Launch” commercial it created for the retailer. And the Vancouver-based shop won two Golds for the “Hospital War” and “Operating Room” PSAs, which were created for the BC Children’s Hospital and showed the diminishing space in which nurses and doctors have to care for child patients.
Grip Limited and “The Movie out Here” (another big winner in the recent awards circuit) created for Kokanee won a single Gold, as did the “Make Health Last” commercial created by Lowe Roche for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. MacLaren McCann snagged a Gold for the “Story of I” spot created for Wendy’s, while Saatchi & Saatchi took home Gold for its Toyota Canada “Today” commercial.
Instagram photo courtesy of School Editing
