Red postboxes among gold winners at ICAD awards

Advertising campaigns for An Post, the Road Safety Authority and Iarnród Éireann were among the winners at Thursday night's Institute of Creative Advertising & Design (ICAD) awards ceremony in Dublin, as nine gold "Bells" were handed out to Irish creatives.

The An Post campaign to promote the 1916-themed “Witness History” exhibition at the GPO in Dublin won gold for advertising agency Target McConnells. The campaign earned high levels of media publicity after the agency and An Post painted ten of the city’s postboxes in “royal red” ahead of the centenary of the Rising.

Publicis won two gold Bells, one for its "Go See the Folks" campaign for Iarnród Éireann, and another for its "Gorilla" ad for TABS, the advertising benevolent society, which confidentially helps people in the industry who are in financial difficulty. The ad recalled the drumming gorilla of a famous Cadbury Dairy Milk campaign, but suggested that its star had fallen on hard times.

Irish International was awarded gold for its work for the Road Safety Authority, while creative agency Boys and Girls and animators Studio AKA also won gold for their "The Girl in the Cloud" animation for Three Ireland.

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Boys and Girls collected 19 Bells on the night overall, the most of any agency.

Detail Design Studio was another gold winner for its Irish Film Board production catalogue, while design studio Pony won two golds for "End", a collaborative project with Dublin photographer Eamonn Doyle.

The awards attracted some 550 entries and a total of 88 awards were handed out.

The 2017 Greenhorn award, which is given to a talented newcomer, was won by composer Denis Kilty, who also won a silver Bell for his music score for Three Ireland's "The Girl and the Cloud", while the Road Safety Authority was named the recipient of a special client award.