Maza Nahin Aaya Awards announces winners

The awards give creativity a free reign and celebrate advertising that is deliberately badly made.

The advertising industry has its share of global and local award shows, where the best work is showcased, celebrated and awarded. The Maza Nahin Aaya (MNA) Awards, however, is the first of its kind to celebrate advertising that has been deliberately badly made.

Some of the briefs included an invisible mask, a mysterious artificial intelligence-powered food startup, and a boutique startup that sells absolutely useless items.

“The idea was to break out of traditional advertising formats, and let creators have some fun with the briefs. And, to create work that one would typically get fired for. And to that end, I’m happy to report that all the winning entries, while true to the brief, are incredibly fresh in their approaches,” said Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, founder of The Voice Company, a content and advertising agency, and the brainchild behind these awards.

The panel of judges include stalwarts from the industry - Tista Sen (regional creative director, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia), Debarpita Banerjee (CEO, FCB India), Prathap Suthan (chief creative officer, Bang In The Middle), Karan Amin (founder, 010), Karl Gomes (chief fanatic, Fanatic), Samriddh Dasgupta (chief marketing officer, Heads Up For Tails), Prerna Mehra (chief creative and head of design, MullenLowe, MENA), and Neha Tulsian (founder and creative director, NH1 Design).

List of winners

Gold Agency – Thinking Partners (Ad title – Transparency)

Silver Agency – Windsor Digital (Ad title – IndiCan’t)

Silver Freelancer – Poorva Das (Ad title – Humans)

Bronze Agency – Windsor Digital (Ad title – Order now)

Bronze Agency – The Invisible Paintbrush (Ad title – Breaking (N)use)

Bronze Freelancer – Adhiraj Mukherjee (Ad title – Happy Endings)