Global honour for Irish Examiner ad

A PROVOCATIVE series of Irish Examiner advertising campaigns has been honoured in a prestigious global competition.

Bestadsontv.com has a monthly online competition which honours the best advertising campaign from around the world, with winners coming from among some of the biggest brands on the planet such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Volkswagen.

Guest judge for September was Simon Foster, the newly appointed creative director on the Blackberry account at AMV/BBDO, London, who joined from Ogilvy and Mather in New York.

His selection for best outdoor ad went to the Irish Examiner for one of its special investigations: Has Life in the Clergy become Hell on Earth? by the Chemistry creative agency in Dublin.

“I really love the craft — both writing and art direction — that’s evident in the Irish Examiner work, and that’s my pick of the bunch,” said Mr Foster.

A number of advertising campaigns for Irish Examiner special investigations were also cited on The Inspiration Room, a globally prestigious website within the advertising industry. The website praised the campaigns for asking “the questions in graphic and, at times, controversial ways”.

Managing director of Chemistry Ray Sheerin said both citations were a big coup, not only for the agency, but for the Irish Examiner.

“It’s a really big deal. To have won a big global competition up against some of the biggest brands in the world is a great honour. For example, we would be competing against global brands with production budgets that run into six figures, so this is great news for Chemistry and great news for the Irish Examiner,” he said.