Seen and noted

This week's guest judge is Prasoon Joshi, who is President of the Cannes Lions Outdoor jury this year. As the Executive Chairman McCann Erickson India & Regional Executive Creative Director Asia Pacific, he is recognized for bringing about a paradigm shift in the advertising industry. Prasoon is credited with creating a new code, a new language for advertising in India. Apart from the linear western style he chose to exploit the inherent 'chaos' of the Indian way of life and created a distinct identity for Indian Advertising. His work has cut ice, both with the masses, and the international juries. Turning fortunes of many big brands he is accredited with marrying 'Creativity and Scale' - hitherto considered mutually exclusive. Coca Cola, Perfetti, Nestle, MasterCard, Unilever and a plethora of local brands stand to benefit from it. From the path breaking 'Thand Matlab' campaign for Coca Cola to Happydent his work speaks for itself. More than 300 advertising awards including Gold Lions at Cannes, AdFest, honours at One Show and Clio and a surfeit of national awards stand testimony to his achievements. Prasoon has represented India on prestigious international award forums like Cannes, DA&D and Clio.

BEST TV
This one's a laugh!! It's not easy to make science look cool, butChemical partydelivers and how! Eccentric casting, quirky track, interesting dance moves, explosive violence, great chemistry, and it even manages to cram in a bit of education. I predict many forwards! A very close second is Volkswagen's Wizard of OzVery cleverly written, with an eyeball-popping finale. Bring on the popcorn!

BEST PRINT
Hitler Anti smokingI've seen this idea before, but it still gets my top vote for flawless execution. Using a mass killer as a medium to illustrate another mass killer is brilliant. Extra points for the typography. Speaking of villains, let’s look at a pedophile, as well: Emilyhas a great executional idea - the use of fluorescent ink to throw light on pedophilia. But that's all. The art direction seems labored, (you can almost see the props being carefully arranged) the point the ad is making is not exactly unknown, and I'm not sure how this ad would work in the day. What do you do, draw the blinds? Or go into a dark room? Would probably work better in an ambient situation where the lights are routinely dimmed, like in a movie theatre or an airplane.

BEST OUTDOOR
Few anti-tobacco ads actually make you want to quit. Cancer Sachet exploits your greed for freebies, fools you into opening the pack, irritates you into reading the back-of-pack message, and scares you shitless with photographs of victims. And all this at the place of purchase. Almost as devious as the tobacco lobby. Tied for first place are the adrenalin-filled NZ army arcade and Gunshot stickerAn absolutely fresh take on army recruitment, yet absolutely logical, NZ Army Arcade takes the recruitment drive into the gamer’s personal zone, and gives him a taste of the real action. Extremely well thought out and detailed, just like a good game. Gunshot Sticker features heart rending photographs of prisoners with removable gunshot stickers. Unnerving, attention-grabbing and interactive, it really makes you think about capital punishment. The shots of smiling people wearing the gunshots are a bit out of place, though.