Saturday November 7, 2009

The Yasmin factor

WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?
HAFIDZ MAHPAR

THE 2009 Kancil Awards held last Friday provided a sense of closure for fans of Yasmin Ahmad’s advertising work.

Besides having a short video tribute on her, the advertising creative award ceremony also saw her final TV commercial, Funeral, receiving the Golden Kancil in the film category (Golden Kancil is the show’s highest prize).

Despite the controversy over jury selection prior to the event, I don’t think one would hear any protest on this win.

Even if this is not seen as her best commercial, one may see the win as a belated justice of sorts.

A frame from the “Funeral” commercial directed by the late Yasmin Ahmad which won the Golden Kancil for Leo Burnett

Many had felt her Merdeka commercial for Petronas entitled Tan Hong Ming in Love, which picked up a string of international awards including Malaysia’s first Cannes Lion gold in the film category, should’ve won the top prize at the 2007 Kancil Awards.

That year’s Golden Kancil went to a Nike Football Sports Apparel website.

Thanks to a few Yasmin-directed commercials, this year’s Kancil Awards marked a strong comeback for Leo Burnett, the agency where she was executive creative director.

Imagine rocketing from 18th place last year to become the number one agency at this year’s show! Leo Burnett ended up with the Agency of the Year title.

Well, last year’s results were actually out of the norm. For many years before that, Leo Burnett had consistently been in the top 10 (mostly in the top five).

The plunge to 18th place was unexpected, especially since Leo Burnett was ranked second internationally under the Agency of the Year ranking last year.

It should be noted that this year, Agency of the Year was determined by the number and kind of metals won at the Kancils (a gold award, for example, was worth 15 points).

Unlike last year, no points were given this year for prizes won at international or regional award shows. This was one of the changes made by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents (4As) this year.

Another was introducing 10 Golden Kancil slots, one for each major category (film, print, digital, radio, direct, outdoor, etc).

If each communication medium had been treated as unique back in 2007, the Tan Hong Ming ad would not have had to go head-to-head with the Nike website.

Interestingly, only two of the entries this year actually won the Golden Kancil.

Despite the many Golden Kancil slots, the jury seemed to be very careful in awarding them, hence easing some people’s concerns that such prizes would be given out too easily and become “cheap.”

Leo Burnett was not the only big winner of the Kancil Awards night. The 4As was, too.

It shows that its revamp of the Kancil Awards could work well. It dispels worries that selecting a wide range of jurors would lead to the show being irrelevant.

The Yasmin factor lent a sense of importance to the 2009 Kancil Awards.

The show really did have to go on despite the downturn – if nothing else, as a platform for closure.

Yes, things couldn’t have worked out better for the 4As.

While its Singapore counterpart decided to scrap the Creative Circle Awards this year due to the economic climate, it has waved its flag proudly without surrender.

And Singapore, one of Malaysia’s big competitors at international advertising award shows, has no choice but to notice, because the advertiser for which the Funeral commercial was created – and which won Advertiser of the Year – is Singapore’s very own Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

● Hafidz Mahpar is an associate editor at The Star. He congratulates all of this year’s winners at the Kancil Awards.