KARACHI: According to Don Draper, the main protagonist on the popular TV show Mad Men, which centers on New York’s advertising community of the 1950s, advertising is about one thing — happiness. For the advertising professionals at the second Pakistan Advertisers’ Society Awards, at the Karachi Expo Centre on Friday, happiness was about winning an award for their work.

Qamar Abbas, the exertive director of the PAS (the representative body of the leading advertisers in Pakistan), said the awards have grown into a full-fledged institution that leading advertising agencies look forward to because they reward creativity in advertising.

He added: “The number of entries increased by approximately 30 per cent this year; last year, we had 103 and this year we received 133.”

The evening began with a speech by Fuad Chundrigar (VP for marketing, Engro Foods, and chairman of PAS) who said PAS had become a platform for conversations between advertising professionals, with the awards acknowledging the creativity that went into making a brand a success.

The ceremony was compered by former advertising and marketing professional Fasi Zaka. It included musical performances and skits by Joshinder Chaggar, the Banana Boys and Quadrum. But probably the most well-received performance of the evening was by pop sensation Alamgir along with Fuzon.

The awards were presented to the winners by celebrities, including Javed Sheikh, Behroze Sabzwari, Maheen Khan, Tapu Javeri, Nabila and Mathira, as well as advertising professionals and media persons.

The agency with the highest number of wins this year was Lowe and Rauf which bagged six awards for several products, including Knorr Noodles, Wall’s Paddle Pop, Sunlight Washing Powder and Vim; the agency also won the Campaign of the Year Award for Vim, presented by Hameed Haroon, CEO, The Dawn Media Group.

Adcom won four awards including campaigns for the British Council, Telenor Easy Paisa, and Telenor (khamoshi ka boycott) followed by JWT with three awards for Sunsilk, Gluco and Nokia.

Other agencies that were honoured with awards included Adetude, BE DDB, Brandstirr, Head Lion, Interflow Communications, Kontent Head, Walter and Creative Unit, which won the Best Media Award for The Dawn Media Group’s Jinnah 2011 Campaign.

The company with the highest number of awards was Unilever Pakistan, which clinched a total of seven awards.

Kiran Murad, executive creative director of Lowe & Rauf, said that the experience of winning six awards was “simply fantastic, and I’m so happy that we won the Campaign of the Year Award for Vim, because we really put our hearts and souls into it, and created something fresh and original”.