Indian advertising shamed as Super Jury decides not to bite the bullet!

The Super Jury has decided that any speculation after the awards cannot be entertained, and hence all awards given will stand

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | April 24, 2013

After all the sound and fury, the Goafest/Abbys controversy over plagiarism ended up as a damp squib. The “wise men” of Indian advertising creativity decided to play it safe by not taking a decision! The charges of plagiarism have been pushed under the carpet and nobody is losing any metals. So, awards that had been rescinded due to complaints for DHL (agency BBDO Proximity) and Electrolux (agency DDB Mudra Group) will be reinstated.

In response to the unprecedented situation arising due to complaints received post Goafest/Abby 2013, the Awards Governing Council (AGC) had constituted a Super Jury comprising Chairpersons of all 11 juries to take a collective view on these complaints.

The Super Jury comprised Agnello Dias, Carlton D'silva, Josy Paul, KS Chakravarthy, Nitish Tiwari, Piyush Panjwani, Prasoon Joshi, Prashant Kalyankar, Rakshin Patel and Sonal Dabral. The Super Jury met on April 23, 2013. Senthil Kumar who was also a member of this jury could not attend as he was travelling.

A statement put out a short while ago by the AGC in the name of its Chairman, Shashi Sinha, reads:

“After due deliberations the Super Jury unanimously decided that they believed there had been enough time given between the shortlisting of entries and the final judging for feedback and objections of any  kind to be raised. Indeed, all such feedback was accepted and acted upon before the final awards were presented. The Super Jury felt that the sanctity of the award process needs to be maintained and all the deadlines should be respected and followed. Therefore, any speculation after the Goafest/Abby Awards cannot be entertained.

“The AGC has always maintained that the Abby's are industry awards for the industry – and the final say must be that of the creative fraternity. In light of the above decision by the Super Jury, it has hence been decided that all awards given will stand. In addition, awards that had been rescinded due to similar complaints for DHL (agency BBDO Proximity) and Electrolux (agency DDB Mudra Group) will be reinstated. The AGC has also noted that for the future rules pertaining to reviews will be further clarified and strictly adhered to.”

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