Advertising Accolade for South Africa

NET#WORK BBDO advertising agency, based in Johannesburg, scooped the Grand Prix award for outdoor advertising on Wednesday at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Awards. The award-winning billboard is regarded as a world-first as it provides solar-generated electricity to a school in Alexandra township and provides the power to give 1100 pupils a hot meal every day. The school saves about R2000 a month on electricity costs thanks to this initiative and further income is generated by the rental of space for the billboard.

The outdoor billboard and a movie showcasing this incredibly creative form of socially-aware and socially-benefitting advertising can be found here.