Goafest 2013: ‘The awards mirror what the industry wants’

The Goafest Advertising Conclave on 4 April saw RS Sodhi, MD, GCMMF (Amul), raising the issue of whether the advertising fraternity should judge its own work for awards.

Responding to a query on the subject at a media meet at Goafest on 5 April, Shashi Sinha, president, The Advertising Club, and chairman, Abby Awards Governing Council (or AGC, jointly constituted body of Goafest organisers AAAI and The Advertising Club), explained the stance of the AGC. He underlined that the debate on the subject was not something new, and that there had been several discussions on the same with industry stakeholders.

“We (Abby AGC) just mirror what the industry wants. We run several awards. This (Abby) is a celebration of creativity. One constituent of Goafest (The Advertising Club) also runs the Effies, at which 70 to 75 per cent of the jury is constituted by clients,” he said.

Underlining that the Abbys are a celebration of the fraternity, Nakul Chopra, chairman, Goafest Committee, urged the media to look at award shows like Cannes for benchmarking the Abbys. “Do you know of any advertising award anywhere in the world that is not judged by the fraternity? This (saying it should be judged by clients) is like saying that the Oscars should be judged by us.”

The Media Abbys will be announced on the evening of 5 April and Goafest will culminate with the Creative Abby award presentation on 6 April.