New-style agency Contagious makes a killing for Save The Children at London’s Arrows awards
I see that among the winners at this week’s British Arrows awards (had to hunt these out as Mr Arrow, whoever he may be, doesn’t see fit to send them to us) was a Silver for Save The Children and agency Contagious.
‘The Killing Does Christmas Jumper Day’ was an artful promotion for Save The Children, inspired by Danish TV series heroine Sarah Lund’s natty line in knitwear.
Contagious was set up by film director Paul Weiland (a star copywriter at CDP back in the day when copywriters actually wrote) in the belief that ads work best (and most cost-effectively) when the creative who comes up with idea directs and produces it too. This may have something to do with Weiland’s exasperation at spending half his life (he’s directed over 1000 commercials as well as feature films) rewriting countless agency scripts to make them shootable. This hasn’t always made him Mr Popular with those agency creatives who prefer directors who prettify their ideas, however dumb.
The team on ‘The Killling’ were Weiland, Jon Brooks and Matt Laroche. Contagious clients include Kingsmill, reed.co.uk and Tropicana brand Trop50, so some advertisers clearly agree.
Elsewhere at the Arrows (don’t see why I should do this really) Adam & Eve/DDB won Agency of the Year and also Commercial of the Year for Marmite.
McDonald’s won Advertiser of the Year and Robert Campbell’s Outsider was Production Company of the Year.
