The 'Rewind' exhibition is celebrating the best British advertising and design work from the last 40 years. The competition, which is running until the end of January, asks visitors to vote for their favourite exhibit via text message.
Mother are way out in front, slaying the opposition with a 49% share of the vote for its Gold Pencil-winning Britart.com campaign. In second place, and a long way behind, is Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO for its multi-award-winning Guinness "surfer" commercial, which has 12% of the vote.
The Britart campaign, which included press, poster and ambient activity, ran into trouble with the outdoor industry, which hit out at the D&AD's decision to award its only Gold Pencil for advertising for the Britart.com campaign. The poster industry accused the design body of condoning the illegal practice of flyposting.
The campaign for the online art gallery Britart.com was launched in 2000 to promote the Britart brand using humour to break down the barriers and pretentiousness often associated with the British art establishment.
Industry leaders in the outdoor sector spoke out against the award because they felt it did not help their case in improving the standards of outdoor advertising.
Alan Simmons, the chairman of outdoor company Concord, went as far as accusing agencies of "conniving with clients to do guerrilla advertising to the detriment of the outdoor business". David Pugh, the director of sales and marketing at Maiden Outdoor, said he was deeply dismayed at seeing the campaign honoured because "it is condoning an illegal activity".
At the time, Stef Calcraft, a founding partner of Mother, said: "Britart.com is a multimedia campaign that extends from press, posters and direct marketing to ambient media. It exploits perfectly today's media landscape for Britart."
The exhibition is being supported by a tongue-in-cheek commercial promoting the exhibition itself called "sell", which will run in cinemas from next week. The ad features leading figures from the advertising industry in a direct-to-camera attempt to persuade viewers to visit the exhibition. It features the tagline -- "if they can't convince you to go, no one can".
Top 10 ads to date
1. 49% 2001 - Britart.com campaign (Mother)
2. 12% 2000 - Guinness "surfer" (AMV)
3. 4% 1993 - The Key To the Kingdom (Tony Meeuwissen)
4. 4% 1999 - Apple IMac (design Apple Industrial)
5. 4% 2002 - Apple Ipod (design Apple Industrial)
6. 4% 1981 - Lego "Kipper" (TBWA)
7. 4% 1986 - Greenpeace "dumb animals" (Yellowhammer)
8. 2% 1981 - Parker Pen poster "This much lead..." (CDP)
9. 2% 1977 - Parker Pen press "The attraction..." (CDP)
10.2% 1972 - Sunday Times Magazine "War on the Home Front" (art director Michael Rand)
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