Best of the rest comes to Auckland

By Karyn Scherer

New Zealanders will get the chance to judge for themselves just how creative our own advertising industry is when an exhibition comparing it to the world's best opens to the public later this month.

The free show, which has been jointly organised by the Advertising Agencies Association, the Designers Institute, the British Council and the British Consulate General, will be held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland and will feature the 1998 winners of the prestigious British Design and Art Direction Awards.

The awards, commonly known as the Yellow Pencils, attract thousands of entries from around the world and winners last year included campaigns for Nike, Volkswagen and Smirnoff.

The exhibition has been divided into three areas, reflecting current trends in British advertising: documentary-style work; highly stylised work; and work that explores innovative ideas and technology. It will also feature examples of state-of-the-art product design.

It went on display in Australia some time ago, but has been kept in storage here to enable it to be presented alongside work from our own ad industry's answer to the Oscars, the Axis Awards, which will be announced on May 17.

The decision to promote the British awards overseas is part of the British industry's determination to be taken seriously by the public. Other initiatives include persuading Britain's National Museum of Photography, Film and Television to open a gallery dedicated to advertising. The gallery will feature past and present award winners, including such legendary campaigns as "Beanz Meanz Heinz", as well as controversial images such as the anti-advertising FCUK campaign.

In its defence, the industry cites media guru Marshall McLuhan, who more than two decades ago described advertising as "the greatest art form of the twentieth century". The only disappointment for some in the New Zealand industry is the fact that the British work that will go on display here is now 12 months old. Designers Institute president Dave

Clark believes most people don't care."Even work that is two or three or even four years old is always relevant," he says. "The changes that occur in this industry are not that acute."

It is just as well, as the 1999 awards were announced in Britain yesterday. Those who can't wait until the next exhibition can check out the website dandad.co.uk, where this year's winning entries are due to be displayed from around 9am.