And wins at the Roses

With thousands of entries and notoriously tough London big-wig judging, these days it’s no mean feat merely to receive a nomination for the prestigious Roses Advertising Awards. But it can be a pretty long night if it’s just spent eating, drinking, sitting, standing and applauding other people’s successes through ever so slightly gritted teeth.

Thankfully, And Partners managed to eat a lot, drink a lot and win a whole lot more than we’d bargained for, walking away not only with a Gold award in the Best Ambient Ad or Stunt category, but the overall Roses Grand Prix award for best ad in-show too.

The ambient ad in question was a piece we did for VILLAGE hotels, specifically a cut-out horse’s head placed in overnight guests’ beds, parodying the famous mafia threat to playfully encourage more people to dine at VILLAGE’s new on-site Italian American restaurant, Buca di Beppo. A hit with hotel guests, many of whose children can regularly be seen lugging four foot horse’s heads into family cars at VILLAGE hotels all over the country, the idea also proved a hit with the judges – and with a beered-up audience baying for a winners’ speech for the night’s top award, the succinct “Jesus, who’d have thought a horse’s head in a bed would win the Grand Prix?” was our measured response. Then we thought, to hell with measured responses, and got drunk instead.