Note No. 5915
27 January 2005

Note to Correspondents

Public Service Advertising Awards to Be Presented on 27 January

PSAs on Literacy, Girls’ Education, Child Prostitution to Receive Awards

NEW YORK, 26 January (UN Headquarters) -- Advertising agencies from Germany, the United Kingdom and Chile will be honoured for public service advertising on Thursday evening, 27 January, when the awards are presented at the International TV, Cinema and Radio Advertising Awards Ceremony at the Hudson Theatre in New York City. Paul Hoeffel, Chief, NGO Section, Department of Public Information, will speak at the awards presentation.

The awards are presented annually and are jointly sponsored by the United Nations Department of Public Information and The New York Festivals. They were established in 1990 to honour public service advertising that best exemplifies the ideals and goals of the United Nations.

This year's panel of judges reviewed work dealing with such UN-related issues as HIV/AIDS, literacy and traffic safety.  The judges selected three public service advertisements/campaigns -- one television, one radio and one print -- to receive awards.

This year’s Gold Award goes to Markenfilm (Germany) for “Zorro”, a television ad produced for Lesen & Schreiber, a German foundation to fight illiteracy. The Silver Award goes to Chrysalis Creative (United Kingdom) for “Young Girl/Holiday Message”, a campaign encouraging school attendance created for Excellence in Cities.  The winner of the Bronze Award is Leche Lowe Worldwide (Santiago, Chile), for “Grey Hair”, a print advertisement on child prostitution developed for Fundación Regazo.

In addition to the winners, the following companies will be honoured as finalists:  Arnold Worldwide (Boston), GSP (New York), J. Walter Thompson (Frankfurt, Germany), Lowe GGK (Vienna, Austria), Michael Conrad & Leo Burnett (Frankfurt), Suburban Films (Cape Town, South Africa) and The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg, South Africa).

The New York Festivals, founded in 1957, oversees and runs six international awards competitions, in film and video, television programming and promotions, radio programming and promotions, television and radio advertising, design and print advertising, and interactive media.

For information, please call (212) 963-7346 or (212) 963-9480.

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