Honda 'cog' takes top prize at Creative Circle

By Mark Sweney, Campaign, Friday, 05 March 2004 12:00AM

Wieden & Kennedy London took top honours at this year's Creative Circle awards with its Honda "cog" spot netting platinum as well as a gold for best commercial.

Questions over the provenance of the creative inspiration behind the ad were cast aside by the Creative Circle's gold jury, which was unanimous in awarding the platinum to "cog".

The chairman of the judges, Mike McKenna, said the furore was "of little consequence". He described the ad as a "mesmerising piece of film". He added that the spot forever broke the mould of car advertising that had, until then, "seemed to roll off the same VW-patented production line".

TBWA\London scooped four golds for its "mountain" ad for Sony PlayStation 2 - direction, special effects, cinematography and music.

W&K picked up a further gold for its body of Honda work, which included "sense" and "everyday", in the best campaign category. It was an honour W&K shared, a first for Creative Circle, with WCRS for its series of ads for the directory enquiry service The Number 118 118. WCRS's moustachioed runners picked up a further gold for best multimedia campaign.

DDB London picked up four golds, all for Volkswagen work. Two golds were awarded for the viral execution "bollocks", one for "cops" for best magazine ad and a further gold for "elepump" for best portrait poster.

Lowe won a clutch of golds in the best press and poster campaign categories for its Quality Street executions for Nestle Rowntree. The agency also won a gold for best new campaign for Reebok.

Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R won best landscape poster with "Maasai" for Land Rover's Freelander.

Leo Burnett picked up a gold award for illustration for its "Gemma" execution for Social Work, while Grey got a gold for the typography in its Remington Bikini Trim & Shape ad.

The President's Award for an individual's contribution to advertising went to Steve Henry, the executive creative director at HHCL/Red Cell.

Al Young, the president of Creative Circle, said: "Henry taught me the importance of creating work that is 1) original, 2) original, and 3) original. His insights and views have kept the industry on its toes for years."

This article was first published on Campaign