Impact BBDO, United Arab Emirates has won Grand Prix of the Year for The New National Anthem Edition for An-Nahar.
Serviceplan Korea has won Grand Prix of the Year – Public Service Advertising (PSA) for Dot Translate: The First Braille Translator Based on AI for Dot Incorporation.
Both be awarded with a US$10,000 prize
Levi Slavin, chief creative officer, Colenso BBDO, New Zealand, was one of five executive judges responsible for choosing this year’s Grand Prix of the Year winners. Of The New National Anthem Edition, he commented, “Familiarity is such a barrier to change. I can’t think of anything more familiar than a country’s national anthem. They are not just a set of words we memorise without question; a national anthem is a document that outlines our collective beliefs and culture. It’s in these places that big problems hide.
“The New National Anthem tackles this in such an open and profoundly simple way. The idea proposed changing one critical sentence in the Lebanese national anthem from “the birthplace of men” to “the birthplace of women and men”. It challenged this norm in such a public and inclusive forum. We loved this idea.”
Executive judge, Valerie Madon, chief creative officer, Asia at VMLY&R, added, “This is a bold move by a publication to leverage its ability to move people at scale. Their bravery was clearly rewarded with massive PR coverage and impact on society.”
Fabio Caveira, senior creative & art director at OPPO China and an Executive Judge says: “The New National Anthem Edition is a powerful idea as it gives women a voice at a time when the issue is being discussed in all parts of the world. Here, women are seen as key mobilisers and partners in a revolution that is no longer silent and that “sings” and fight for equal rights to men to demand a better country.”
It is the second consecutive Grand Prix of the Year win for Impact BBDO, which also won Grand Prix of the Year at Ad Stars 2019 for An-Nahar, The Blank Edition.
Of Serviceplan Korea’s Grand Prix of the Year (Public Service Advertising) win, Slavin commented, “Dot Translate is an extraordinary idea. With near-human accuracy, it translates any digital text to Braille. We loved this idea for a couple of reasons. In a time when we’re all struggling to understand the ethical parameters of AI, this idea elegantly uses the technology to support human effort, in the support of humanity. We also loved that it is a solution that can be delivered at scale. While there was a huge amount of extraordinary work in this category, the potential scale of delivery pushed Dot Translate ahead of the other very worthy contenders.”
This year’s Special Award winners are:
- Dentsu Inc., Japan: Agency of the Year
- BBDO: Network of the Year
- McDonald’s: Advertiser of the Year
- Good Oil: Production Company of the Year
The 13th AD STARS three-day online conference will begin on October 22, 2020, while the awards ceremony will be replaced with an online showcase of winning work to be released on October 22, 2020 via the Ad Stars website.
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