By A Correspondent

Indian entrants have bagged nine Pencils at the annual D&AD awards. McCann Worldgroup has bagged five Pencils, four of which are for the Afghan government’s ‘The Immunity Charm’. The fifth Pencil is for PayTM’s ‘Sweet Change’ entry. Ogilvy (MP Tourism), Cheil (The Good Vibes Project), FCB (No Conditions Apply – Sindoor Khela) and Hindustan Petroleum (Roads that Honk) have also bagged Pencils.

While the name of the Pencil-winners has been announced, the colour of the Pencil – Wood, Graphite, Yellow and the coveted Black – will be unveiled on Thursday evening at the awards event. The Hindustan Petroleum ad was created by Leo Burnett, but since the Publicis group is staying away from awards (except Goafest where PR agency MSL participated and won), guess client HP is identified as the entrant.

This year’s event will see a total of 721 Pencils awarded, with the United States topping the country rankings with 194 Pencils. The top-ranking countries are:United States – 194 Pencils, United Kingdom – 165 Pencils, Japan – 49 Pencils, Germany – 46 Pencils and France – 37 Pencils. India is joint #13 with China with nine Pencils.

Said D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay: “The last few days of judging have been incredibly inspiring, and we’re excited to open our doors today for this year’s Festival. All Pencil winning work is on show throughout the Truman Brewery, and will give visitors insight into what creative excellence means today. It’s great to see the range of work that creative minds all over the globe are producing. Long gone are the days when design and advertising operated in silos. The work being produced today touches many industries, and is testament to the value of creativity to business.”