Footballitis and lying lion take out gongs

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Saatchi & Saatchi proved its creative dominance again at last night's advertising awards, walking off with the top honour and a clutch of gold medals.

The Best in Show award for the adidas "Footballitis" campaign came without last year's controversy around the Women's Refuge campaign that won Saatchi & Saatchi the same prize.

The proliferation of charity and small-scale advertising that bothered the industry a year ago was not so apparent this time round.

Adidas was joined by corporate advertisers Sony and Sky Television in the individual category awards.

The adidas campaign featured an interactive centre called the Institute for the Study of Footballitis.

Fans could enter the online institute and nose round places such as the dressing rooms of their favourite players.

The campaign, to create interest around the adidas World Cup site, greatly exceeded expectations. Original hopes of 50,000 registered users boomed to more than 216,000, with 78 per cent wanting to hear from adidas in the future.

The Sky TV campaign, created by DDB, featured a lioness at home, lying on a couch, who greets her husband when he walks in the door.

He has been on a business trip, the traffic was hell and he has bought some antelope home for dinner.

Unfortunately, wife lion, watching a Sky documentary on wildlife, spots hubby in a comprising position with another lioness.

The catchphrase: Life - if only it was as wild as Sky documentaries.

Last night, DDB went wild when it found out the campaign had taken the Grande AXIS, Television.

The Grande AXIS, Print went to GeneratorBates for its Sony Camcorder campaign.

The smallest camcorder in the world was found in an advertisement created from miniature images.

Everyday scenes - a park, a street - caught the eye when the viewer realised they were tiny models. The point was clear: this camcorder is really small.

The people's choice award went to Whybin TBWA's Ira Goldstein campaign for ASB Bank - for the second year running.

Two new awards were introduced last night: Advertiser of the Year and Production Company of the Year.

Silverscreen took the latter, and the Land Transport Safety Authority, handled by Clemenger BBDO, was judged the agencies' favourite.

CAANZ