Every now and then I receive an email that makes my heart sing [:ed]. This very short message from Boys + Girls is one of them. “We’re delighted to say we’ve been awarded the first ever Irish Yellow Pencil at the D&AD awards”. A Yellow Pencil is a big deal. Winning the first one for your country is a huge deal. It deserves to be noticed. It deserves applause.

The spot won its Yellow Pencil in Writing for Advertising in Radio & Audio. It also won a Graphite Pencil in Commercials Over 30 Seconds in Radio & Audio.

The ad was created last summer for Drowning Prevention Week for Swim Ireland. My own response was written up into a story on The Stable. It reads, “Experience the video below with the sound on and your eyes closed. You might not be able to get through to the end. It’s harrowing. It’s sixty seconds of a drowning child calling out to her father. It takes a simple phrase that all Irish parents are used to hearing daily and gradually changes its meaning.”

The phrase is “Daddy, Daddy look at me”.  The child is drowning. The message is, “Never look away while their child is in the water.

Rory Hamilton, chief creative officer at Boys + Girls, expressed the agency’s joy, “This is a massive achievement for us. Only 63 Yellow Pencils were handed out across all categories, among thousands of entries from every leading agency around the world. Winning at D&AD is always exciting but to be awarded two pencils for our work with Swim Ireland, for a cause we truly believe in, is incredible.”

Swim Ireland is the governing body for swimming, diving, water polo, open water and synchronised swimming on the island of Ireland and Drowning Prevention Week will return this year in June.

Boys+Girls also won two awards at Caples this week, a Silver in Integrated and a Bronze PR for Three with The Connected Island.