Amateurs and professionals slug it out to crack world's toughest ad briefs

by Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 22-Mar-05, 08:40

LONDON - Creative professionals will battle against amateurs to crack the world's toughest advertising briefs, as part of a competition being run by the Financial Times Creative Business section.

The competition will see the FT publish an advertising brief on a challenging topic each month. People will then have two weeks to submit ideas, via the competition partner OpenAd.net.

The first brief is to create an advertising drive for the Make Poverty History campaign, which aims to raise awareness of global poverty and encourage ordinary people to show their commitment ahead of the G8 summit this year.

Entries will be judged by ad world luminaries including Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO's executive creative director Peter Souter; Greg Delaney, chairman of Delaney, Lund, Knox, Warren & Partners; Polly Cochrane, director of marketing at Channel 4; Dianne Thompson, CEO of Camelot Group; Gill Hart, marketing director of the Financial Times; and Amanda Mackenzie, vice-president of marketing at the customer solutions group for HP.

Richard Curtis, the director of 'Love, Actually' and founder of Comic Relief, will also sit on the judging panel for the Make Poverty History brief.

Gautam Malkani, who edits Creative Business, said: "The Creative Business pages are about provoking debate and discussion within the creative industries. What better way to get people talking than to ask them for their ideas in meeting what will be some of the world's most challenging advertising briefs."

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