There were some noteworthy Canadian triumphs at the 2000 London International Advertising Awards, held in London, Eng. in November. Four Canadian agencies used Canadian production companies to get their points across and help bring trophies back to their respective offices. Well, three anyway. The fourth has its trophy in its living room, still not quite sure how it got there.

The first Canuck win came in for Bensimon Byrne D’Arcy in the television: beverage alcoholic category. Molson Canadian’s high-profile ‘Rant’ spot earned kudos for creative director/copywriter Glen Hunt and art directors Cheryl Kaplan, Brad Wood, Colin Brown and Ian Berry. Lori Estabrooks produced for the agency. Mad Films’ Kevin Donovan directed, with Mark Bisson executive producing. ‘Joe’ did not accept the award on behalf of his creators.

Mad and Donovan scored yet again, in the television: cosmetics/ toiletries category. The winning spot was Lever Pond’s ‘Customized Family’ for Salon Selectives, with creative out of Taxi Advertising. The ad’s co-creative directors were Paul Lavoie (art director) and Zak Mroueh (copywriter). Louise Blouin produced for Taxi and Tara Handley produced for Mad.

Gee Jeffery & Partners won in the television: utilities category with Cantel AT&T’s ‘Immigration.’ Creative director Robin Heisey and Rick Pregent served as copywriters, with Joe Piccolo the art director and Karen Peterman the producer. Imported Artists’ Richard D’Alessio directed and Nina Valiquette produced.

Perhaps the biggest surprise came in the television: low-budget category. Toronto’s Toothin Theatre and director Park Bench took home the top prize in the category for a Mental Health Awareness psa called ‘Elevator.’ According to Bench, what started out as a nice excuse to go to England turned into a real step forward for his career and that of his partner Alex Appel, who produced the spot.

‘It was quite unreal,’ admits Bench.

‘Elevator’ was a two-person show: Bench was the director, copywriter, creative director and half the cast, while Appel did her part as agency producer, producer, makeup artist, props person and craft services provider.

The most surprising element to this story is not the fact that Toothin Theatre won, but rather who it beat. Toothin, which started as a theatre company, just recently getting into film and commercial production, managed to win out over agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, jwt, Leo Burnett, BBDO Canada and 1,000 others entered in the category.

Bench says Toothin Theatre isn’t really all that interested in advertising, and its next ambition is to produce a short film.

‘We would consider working in commercials in either the creative or production areas, but only in special instances really,’ says Bench. ‘Right now we are just going with our interests.’

The competition attracted an estimated 17,000 entries from 77 countries. *

-www.liaawards.com

-www.parkbench-theman.com