By Meghna Sharma

The Men in Black will not be seen running to the stage at the Creative Abby this year.

Yes, that Ogilvy & Mather shines at the Abby every year is a foregone conclusion for the creative fraternity in India. Yes, there are the folks at Taproot, DDB Mudra, JWT, BBDO, Creativeland and the like, but the Piyush Pandey-headed O&M has been ruling the Indian creative awards.

“Yes, we won’t be participating  in Goafest this year,” confirmed Abhijit Awasthi, National Creative Director of O&M to MxMIndia. “We won’t be entering in the awards as we have felt that they were not energizing our people as they used to earlier. So we decided to take a break and may be see later what happens.”

MxMIndia wasn’t able to reach Advertising Club for an official comment, though informally senior members have confirmed the development. While they don’t expect Ogilvy to reverse its decision, at least one senior person said that efforts are being made to get Ogilvy back.

Goafest 2013 is scheduled to be held in Goa from April 4 to 6 this year.

Update: While confirming the development with MxMIndia, Advertising Club president Shashi Sinha said that the awards will go on as usual, even though he agreed that Ogilvy’s absence will have an effect.