KARACHI: It’s that time of the year again when the Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) holds its annual awards function, which it did for 2016 at the Expo Centre on Saturday night. The awards aim to celebrate various aspects in the field of advertising, encourage growth within the industry, help young talent to shine through in a highly competitive environment, and also celebrate the mad men and women of advertising who have proved their mettle.

This year, too, the ceremony was preceded by a Red Carpet lounge where fashion and showbiz bigwigs and celebrities such as Atiqa Odho, Sheheryar Munawwar, Gia Ali, Amna Ilyas, Yousuf Bashir Qureshi, Sohai Ali Abro and Munna Mushtaq, besides socialites and advertising royalty walked its length to give spot interviews and be photographed by the media. The stage area itself was interspersed with banquet tables and a resplendent red curtain dividing the stage into two halves, the front half being where the actual awards ceremony took place while the back half was revealed during the many performances that dotted the ceremony.

As for the nominations and winners in 20 regular categories, seven special categories and three special awards, Adcom Advertising walked away with the most wins while Engro Foods won in all the three categories it was nominated in, as pointed out gleefully by a corporate representative.

Tariq Ikram (Sitara-i-Imtiaz) received a Lifetime Achievement award presented by Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, which was received by his son Ali Tariq.

The incorrigible duo of Vasay Chaudhry and Ahmed Ali Butt hosted the ceremony later joined by co-host Rubya Chaudhry and others while the performances included a medley by Ali Azmat, a mentalist performance titled ‘The Other Side’ by Shaheer Khan, who claims to have harnessed the power to read people’s minds and effectively predict the future, a collaboration between The Sounds of Kolachi and performance troupe The Big Idea based on reinvention and rebirth, an all-girl band of Nescafe Basement fame, and finally another one based on Saami Brothers’ vocals.

A win-win situation

Unilever won Best Media Innovation for ‘Fair & Lovely ka Jalwa’ (it also inspired an item number in the film Jawani Phir Nahi Ani); Farigh Four won Hospitals & Healthcare for the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, Peshawar, campaign ‘Sub kuch wapis asakta hai sivaye zindagi kay’; Adcom won Telecommunication, Hardware and Electronics for Samsung: Selfies ban jaye Grandfies; BBDO won Best BTL Award for 7-Up Melting Vending Machine; Mullen Lowe Rauf won Best in Print for Lifebuoy: Time for Before Iftar; Adcom won Best in Culinary for Engro Onaaj; Adcom won Best in Digital, Textile Fashion & Accessories for Telenor Easy Paisa: Black Friday, Garnier: Pure Neem and Borjan: Walk the Fashion; J. Walter Thompson won Passion for Pakistan for HBL Enabling Dreams (featuring Samina Baig); Ogilvy Pakistan won Confectionary & Snacks for Lotte Kolson: Snackers; Mindshare Pakistan won Best in PR for Pepsi: Lighting Up Lives; Ogilvy Pakistan won Special Season for Shan Recipie Mixes; IAL Saatchi & Saatchi won Best Telecommunication Service Provider for Mobilink: Call Drop; Arey Wah won Best in TV for Homage Inverter; Starcom won Beverages Cold for Coke Studio Season 8; Bond Advertising won Banking & Financial Services for Bank Al-Habib: Asan; Adcom won Ice Cream & Dessert for Omore Fun Stick: Fun ka Endless maza; Core won Out of Home for 7-Up pack; Adcom won Cosmetics & Personal Care for Lifebuoy Soap; Adcom won Best in Food & Dairy for Tarang; and Best in Media was bagged by Ten Sports’ Wake Up Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2016