The New York Festivals International Television and Cinema Advertising Awards and the Mobius Awards have once again yielded a healthy crop of Canadian winners.

The New York Festivals, a fixture on the awards circuit for the past 40 years, cites its top picks in spot-making as well as broadcast design and features a separate prize for advertising and marketing effectiveness.

The Mobius Awards are presented in tv, radio, print and package design categories.

The award shows provide a look back at some of the big ideas of 1998 and something to hold the crowd until the spring classic, The Clios, the tv segment of which will take place this year on May 20 in New York.

Canadians scored 15 wins at last month’s New York Festivals Awards.

bbdo, Toronto, made a strong showing, taking a campaign Gold, three Silvers and a Bronze. The agency’s 7Up campaign garnered Gold for best humorous campaign, with one of the campaign spots, ‘Beach,’ winning Silver in the soft drinks category and Silver for best original music, rendered by Toronto’s Great Big Music (see 7UP, p. B3).

The agency also won Silver for the spot ‘Hall Fall Down’ for Campbells Soup, directed by Mark Story out of Avion Films, and a Bronze campaign award for Bell Long Distance’s ‘More Bad Jokes/Crisis Management/Mergers and Acquisitions.’

Other Gold wins for Canada at the New York Fest included Cossette’s ‘Busker’ spot for McDonald’s in the retail-restaurant and food category, produced by swat and directed by Christian Duguay out of La Fabrique d’Images (see McDonald’s, p. B6), and Leo Burnett, Toronto’s, ‘Vending Machine’ for Visa Gold in the banking/financial category, directed by Justin Klarenbeck out of The Partners’ Film Company (Klarenbeck is now at Avion), with the gigantic vending machine created with the help of Toronto’s Axyz (see Burnett’s, p. B5).

Gold was also awarded to Marketel’s Air Canada spot ‘Defy,’ which won for best original music, created by Rene Dupere (see Dupere’s, p. B4).

Young & Rubicam won two Silvers, one in the banking/financial category for AGF Mutual Funds’ ‘Actor,’ directed by Avion’s Steve Eschelman, and one in the retail-dealers category for Radio Shack’s ‘XRay’ spot, directed by Imported Artists’ Richmond D’Alessio.

Agency bmr, Sault Sainte Marie, Ont., won Silver in the psa category for its ‘Heroes’ effort for the United Way, directed by Britt Randle out of Partners’.

TBWA Chiat/Day earned a Silver for ‘Hippos,’ a spot for the Metro Toronto Zoo, directed by Howard Alstad out of Avion. The agency also scored Bronze for ‘Wheel,’ a psa for Endangered Species.

Avion’s Martin Granger was at the helm of a Silver-winning spot called ‘Spatulaworld’ for Vodaworld out of South Africa’s Jupiter Drawing Room, marking one of the many international projects Granger has been directing lately (see Vodaworld, p. B8).

Cossette also captured a Bronze award for its ‘Fight Against Drugs’ psa, featuring the hard-hitting George Chuvalo story. The spot was produced out of Montreal’s Voodoo Arts with input from an array of talent from the Montreal community (see Voodoo’s, p. B7).

A Bronze in the retail-dealers category went to Due North Communications for its ‘Airplane’ spot for Goodyear Canada.

The New York Festivals Best Commercial Grand Award was given to DDB Needham, Chicago, for ‘Mind Control’ for Budweiser.

Clemenger bbdo, Melbourne, Australia, won best campaign for the Conference of Australian Milk Authorities’ ‘Retired/Milkman,’ while Jupiter Drawing Room earned best creative/production achievement for its ‘5/6/12’ campaign for Musica. Best psa honors went to TBWA/Campaign Company for its child safety spot ‘Funniest Home Video.’

Canada also made a strong showing at this month’s Mobius Awards in Chicago, capturing 22 wins.

Avion figured prominently in the proceedings, winning five of the nine tv awards given out to Canadian spots.

Avion’s Granger directed the Cantel at&t spots ‘Duel’ and ‘Kung Fone,’ created by Gee Jeffery & Partners, both first-place winners in the cinema category.

Avion’s George Morita directed the live-action portion of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ spot for Ford out of y&r. Animation for the ad was done by Chuck Gammage Animation of Oakville, Ont., and compositing was by TOPIX/Mad Dog (see y&r’s, p. B8).

The gut-wrenching ‘On the Beach’ spot from Leo Burnett, directed by Avion’s Ray Dillman, also earned a first-place Mobius.

Burnett’s ‘We The Children’ for Kellogg’s, directed by Avion’s Ray Dillman with effects by Axyz, won twice – for image building and for food-cereals.

The Ford trucks campaign, ‘Heart and Soul/For the Long Haul,’ created by y&r and directed by Partners’ Michael Cerny, took top honors in the automotive-trucks category. y&r’s ‘Pool’ spot for Radio Shack won for recreation-home entertainment and its ‘Astronaut’ spot for ‘Benson & Hedges Symphony of Fire,’ featuring space-bound pyrotechnics fans and directed by Peter Bloomfield out of International Shooters, won in the entertainment events category.

Two Canuck entries, ‘Three Pigs’ and ‘We The Children,’ were nominated for the Mobius TV Best of Show award, with the prize going to a Pfizer spot called ‘The Power of Zyrtec’ from agency hmc, New York, and produced out of A Band Apart Commercials, l.a.