WWF ‘Space Monkey’ and NZ Lotto ‘Lucky Dog’ get lucky at VII Animals Spot Awards in Rome

On Thursday night the Animal Spot Awards – the one and only ad festival in the world dedicated to animals – took place at the Casa del Cinema in Rome.

Leo Burnett, Sydney scored first prize in the Animal-Human Relationship category for WWF ‘Space Monkey’, while DDB New Zealand was awarded second prize in the Filmic Value category for Lotto ‘Lucky Dog’.

A shortlist of only 20 commercials worldwide were selected by a technical jury. Six of them were voted for on Repubblica online, which scored 7000 visitors in four days. The technical jury is chaired by movie director Alessandro d’Alatri, with Luca Maniero, Alberto Luca Recchi, Marco Giusti and by Fulco Pratesi, honorary president of WWF.

Now in its seventh year, the Animal Spot Festival is based in Rome, the city founded by the famous wolf-fed twins and saved centuries later (390 b.c.) by a flock of geese gaggling at the city assaulters. Legends apart, animals have always had a fundamental function in human communications eons before history became historical, from Paleolithic cave paintings to more recent filmic productions like Ratatouille or The March of Penguins, not to mention the masterpieces of literature like the Jungle Book or Moby Dick.

According to the awards blurb, animals have a leading role also in advertising, being used both as trade marks or logotypes (think of Lacoste, Caterpillar, Jaguar, Quantas, Ferrari, Red Bull) and as a narrative pretext. This is because animals are particularly suited to represent a whole range of situations, being both persuasive and sympathetic. In other words, animals are useful in advertising as much as advertising is useful to animals by bringing them closer to men, women and children – not a bad collateral effect.

Rudy Taguri of The Sweet Shop

in London (left) travelled to Rome to receive the DDB NZ award, and Leo Burnett Rome, on behalf of Sydney office, picked up the bowl for Space Monkey WWF

At the final evening of Animal Spot, which took place simultaneously with the International Film Festival of Rome at the Casa del Cinema, the following prizes were awarded :

PRIZES TO FILMIC VALUE:

First prize: John Nolan, London, UK – “Nolan’s Cheddar”

(actress Barbara de Rossi is presenting the prize)

Second prize ex equo: DDB NZ, Auckland, New Zealand – NZ Lotteries ‘Lucky dog’ (Margherita Wang is presenting the prize – CoolDog – www.margheritawang.com)

Second prize ex equo: The Red Brick Road, London, UK – ThinkBox, “Harvey”

(prize presented by Sandro Rinaldi – Poderi di Capo d?Uomo – Poderi di Capo d’Uomo – www.capoduomo.com)

Third prize: Instinct, Roma, Italia – Mercedes, Classe B – “il rispetto”

(Prize presented by Massimo Perla, dogs trainer)

PRIZES TO ANIMAL-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP:

Primo premio: Leo Burnett, Sydney, Australia – WWF ‘Space Monkey’

(prize presented by: Fulco Pratesi WWF Italia honorary president)

Secondo premio ex equo: Ogilvy, Brussels, Belgium – EU Commission, “Biodiversity”

(prize presented by: Gianfranco Noferi – RAI Sat – www.raisat.it)

Secondo premio ex equo: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles, USA – Nissan, “Shift bear”

(prize presented by: Luca Alberto Recchi – marine documentary filmmaker and producer) Terzo premio: BBDO NY, New York, USA – Monster, “Beaver play violin”

(prize presented by: Ricardo Parravicini – Adstream – www.adstream.it)

PREMIO ADSTREAM/REPUBBLICA DELLA GIURIA POPOLARE:

XXS, Schipol, Holland – Dieren Bescherming, “Paper Animals”.

(prize presented by: Giuseppe Smorto – Repubblica.it director)

PREMIO DEL PRESIDENTE DELLA GIURIA:

“Lupa” di bronzo a: BBH, London,UK – Perfetti Van Melle, “Walrus Play”

(prize presented by: Umberto Croppi – assessore alla cultura di Roma Capitale)