RT's Advertising Declared Ad of the Month in UK

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Mar 05, 2010, 10:19 ET

NEW YORK and LONDON, March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- RT's ads that caused a row among Western media and Russian bloggers has been found the best commercial of the month by the British press. In January, judges from the prestigious Awards for National Newspaper Advertising (the ANNAs) proclaimed RT billboard advertisement as the "Ad of the Month".

"Some powerful, thought provoking work to start the year off from RT.com," was the verdict of one of ANNAs judges Nik Studzinski, Creative Director at Mother. "Of course we've seen press campaigns that 'challenge' us to think about things in a different way before. Everything from political advertising to oven chips. I suppose it's a perfectly legitimate strategy for a website devoted to current affairs, especially one that seems to put an emphasis on generating debate. But there's such confidence in the visual treatment here that make these ads really stand out from the rest of this month's work, as well as from campaigns that have walked the same path. Great use of photography makes them difficult to ignore. They feel big. Just like the space they fill in the newspapers. Full pages in the broadsheets. Mmmmm, nice. Big."

Among thousands of advertisements appearing in British newspapers every month, two from RT were nominated for Ad of the Month, along with a Volkswagen ad and public service ads from the CWDC.

"This is an excellent result for our advertising campaign. After gaining a huge response in Western media, thousands of positive comments in English-language blogs from our viewers, now we have recognition from advertising professionals," Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief, RT, said.

RT's advertising campaign, developed by McCann Erickson creative team, is based on the opposition of several symbols and calls upon the viewers to "question more". In total, five different ads were used in the campaign, all of which can be viewed on the channel's website www.rt.com/ads. The RT ads were also found on the pages of British national newspapers in December-January 2010. However, RT was denied the right to advertise in US airports. Instead, blank billboards appeared with the following text: "Our ad. Politically correct. For original version please visit www.rt.com."

The RT campaign generated a large response in Western media - the Guardian, The Times, The Independent, Der Spiegel, IPS News and The Globe and Mail were among some of the publications that covered the ad controversy.

The ANNAs award is the most prestigious and universally recognized in the British press. The competition distinguishes creativity in the national press advertisements. The ANNAs are administrated by the Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA), which was founded by national newspapers including the Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, The Sun and other major publications. An independent council of experts, comprised from heads of major media and advertising agencies, selects the Ad of the Year out of the 12 Ad of the Month winners. For more details about the nominees and the winner, please visit the award founder's web site www.the-annas.co.uk.

Website: www.rt.com

SOURCE RT