Steve Henry, Annas judge and executive creative director of TBWA\London, described the ad as "supremely confident" and praised its combination of "very strong visual design, a hauntingly beautiful photograph, ruthless economy with the words, and a laugh-out-loud typographical gag with the full stop (a policeman's helmet)".
"This ad is as strong as my favourite film ads and I can't give much higher praise than that."
The team behind the ad are creatives Nick Allsop and Simon Veksner and designer Dominic Grant.
The other nominations for March were: Adidas "young David Beckham" and E.ON "street" by TBWA\London; Waitrose "eggs" by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy; Tesco "lightbulb" by The Red Brick Road; PG Tips "tea farmer" by Mother; and Audi "A4" by BBH.
Henry congratulated Mother for managing "to bring a lot of the charm and engagement of the TV ads" into the PG Tips newspaper ad, created by Al MacCuish and Darren Bailes.
He said: "The monkey's tractor-motif pyjamas, the hilarious photo with the top hat, even the half-open drawer in the assembly-kit bedside table -- all help to capture a genuinely entertaining world which makes for really outstanding advertising."
The Adidas ad and the Waitrose "eggs" ad were notable for using the topicality of national newspapers to boost their engagement with readers and will be considered for the £5,000 topicality award in this year's Annas.
The Annas offer a £25,000 prize for the creative team behind the ad judged the best of the year.
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