The first season of Avant-garde advertising award show ‘Maza Nahi Aaya’ kicks off

The show – a creation by The Voice Company, founded by Bodhisatwa Dasgupta – is all set to start accepting entries

New Delhi (India), February 14: The advertising industry has its share of global and local award shows, where the best work is showcased, celebrated and awarded. The Maza Nahi Aaya (MNA) Awards, however, is the first of its kind which celebrates advertising that has been deliberately badly made.

“The idea was to have some fun with advertising. Every single one of us in the advertising industry spends hours making an ad look perfect – the logo has to be on the top right, the picture needs to be beautifully shot, the copy has to be just right. And because of this, over some time, advertising has become formatted,” said Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, founder of The Voice Company, a content and advertising agency and the brainchild behind these awards.

“I wanted to create a platform where the shackles were taken off, and creators could just have fun and make a mess of things. And at the end of it all, be rewarded for it,” added Dasgupta.

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).

The format of the awards is simple. There are three briefs available on the platform (www.mnaawards.com). A creator has to simply pick one brief, or all three, download the media kit that contains the logo file, and start creating. Once the creator is ready to submit, they have to pay a small entry fee and submit the ad, which will then go through rounds of judging by the best in the business.

The briefs range from an invisible face mask, a surprise food delivery app, and a company that makes completely useless things. With briefs like these, says Dasgupta, the scope for creating really fun and whacky advertising is incredibly wide.

Creators can click on the platform to start uploading their ads in static or GIF format.

More specifications are there on the Rules tab of the website.

The last date for entry submission is March 25, 2022.