Volkswagen’s ad promoting its Fatigue Detection Technology has won the 2014 Gold Siren award for the best radio ad of the year.
Entitled ‘Road’ the 30 second ad was written by Jim Curtis and Ryan Fitzgerald from DDB Sydney.
The spot also grabbed two Silver Siren awards for winning the single and craft categories announced this morning at a breakfast in Melbourne.
Within the ad you hear the driver’s inner thoughts as he focuses on the monotonous car journey, and the veering of his thoughts towards Pippa Middleton’s backside.
But oops, he must keep his attention on the road and the Driver Fatigue Detection Technology helps him to get his mind back on the road.
“This campaign really does use hypnotic technique to lull us into a place where we really get the point that fatigue is a major factor in road accidents,” Judge Paul Le Couteur, from Flagstaff Studios said.
“Great writing and production makes this campaign sing.”
Judge, James Rickard from kwp! added: “Simple. Intriguing. Compelling. With the product at the heart of the idea.”
Chief executive of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner said: “This is the 10th year of the Siren Awards and it has been another outstanding year of entries. The winning Volkswagen ad is a very effective use of audio for radio and highlights a vehicle feature that could save lives.”
Listen to the ad below.
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The Silver Siren for best radio campaign (three or more radio ads) was awarded to John Mescall and Pat Baron from McCann for another Metro Train ad campaign called “Metro Notify”.
Mescall and Baron won the Gold Siren last year for a campaign called ‘Set fire to your hair’ from the ‘Dumb ways to die’ campaign.
The Client Award was given to Rohan Lancaster and Darren Pitt from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for the radio ad campaign for M&Ms Mars Chocolate called “Shoppers Please”.
