KARACHI: The Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) held its 7th annual gala awards ceremony at the Expo Centre on Saturday night to recognise and honour leading marketing and advertising campaigns as well as legends in the field of advertising.

The ceremony marked winners in 19 regular and two special categories from among the 325 entries received. In his opening address, PAS Vice Chairman Amir Paracha especially made it a point to mention that the awards would now also be open to competition in the field outside of Pakistan.

In what was a truly mem­orable moment, Anwar Rammal was given the Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of his invaluable and pioneering services in advertising. The evening’s proceedings were also punctuated by various performances which included song and dance numbers as well as improv comedy acts.

The PAS Awards’ recipients and categories are: Refree (Agriculture & Related Industries), Shell Rimula (Automotive & Transport), Bank Alfalah (Banking & Financial Services), Coca-Cola (Beverages-Cold), Oye Hoye (Confectionery & Snacks), Diamond Paints (Construction, Real Estate & Allied Industries), Lux (Cosmetics & Personal Care), Meezan Cooking Oil (Culinary), Interwood (Office Furniture), FPCCI FocusPK ‘16 (Events), Surf Excel (Fabric Care, Home Care & Furnishing). Nurpur (Food & Dairy), The Industry Hospital (Hospitals, Health Care & Hygiene), Cornetto (Ice Creams & Desserts), UN Women Pakistan (Public Service & CSR), Haier (Telecommunication Hardware & Consumer Electronics), Telecom (Telecommunication Service Providers), Borjan (Textile, Fashion & Accessories), Jazz (Best in BTL Activation), UN Women Pakistan (Best in Digital), Djuice (Best in PR), Jazz (Campaign for Good), HBL (Corporate Campaign), Jan (Media Innovation), Coca-Cola & HBL (Passion for Pakistan), Surf Excel (Season’s Special), Coca-Cola (Platform Award-Best in TV), Surf Excel (Platform Award-Best in OOH), Soneri Bank (Platform Award-Best in Print), Coca-Cola (Top Brand 2016), Refree (Best Nationally Originated Campaign), Surf Excel (Campaign of the Year).

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2017