PRESS CONFERENCE TO LAUNCH STUDENT-LED CONTEST ON MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The United Nations Millennium Campaign and the International Advertising Association (IAA) this morning launched a global marketing and communications competition for university and college students, which would focus on developing advertising campaigns for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Sponsored by Dentsu, Inc., a Japanese advertising agency, this is the second year the IAA Dentsu Inter Ad XI Global Student Competition will concentrate on a United Nations development issue.  Last year, it featured the work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  Under InterAd, students from institutes accredited with the 1938 International Advertising Association (IAA), as well as other universities, were asked to develop comprehensive advertising campaigns that would advance the work of the United Nations.  It is the eleventh year that the advertising association has held the competition.  The winners are expected to receive a trophy and a travel allowance of up to $7,500 upon presentation of their award-winning entry at a United Nations event.

Speaking at a Headquarters press conference today were Michael Lee, IAA’s Executive Director; Professor Noriyuki Shutto, Executive Adviser of Dentsu; and Salil Shetty, Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign.

“The myriad of social issues that face the world resonated well with our students’ themes and faculty leaders and the overall mission of corporate social responsibility,” said Mr. Lee in his introductory remarks.  The United Nations Millennium campaign was an “exciting idea to test the creativity of students worldwide”.

Speaking on behalf of Dentsu, which provided financial backing for the competition, Mr. Shutto thanked the United Nations and IAA for giving his organization the opportunity to endorse this year’s competition.  Dentsu strongly believed in investing in social causes and had been involved in supporting primary education programmes in Asia for some time.

Speaking for the United Nations Millennium Campaign, Mr. Shetty said the partnership with the IAA and Dentsu was “momentous”.  To take the mandate to the people, the documents had to be written in simple English, easily understood by the general public.  The student advertising competition was a crowning event, which targeted youth and partnered the United Nations with IAA and Dentsu.  Older people were sceptical about the United Nations work, but younger people who had heard about the Millennium Development Goals were supportive.

Asked how much input there would be from the United Nations in selecting the competition’s winner, Mr. Lee said that the competition operated in five regions, with entries to be judged by regional committees.  Those Committees would get input from the regional United Nations offices.  This was not a competition targeted to students with perfect command of English, he added.  Rather, the competition would also accept submissions in other local languages, which would be accompanied by an English language summary.

To a question about a controversy in Spain -- in which a television advertisement for the United Nations Millennium Campaign had shown a group of people breaking into the Spanish Parliament and stealing the chair of Spanish Prime MinisterJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero –- Mr. Shetty said that the United Nations had already issued a press release, which clarified the misunderstanding.  “It was a spoof, it really did not happen,” he explained.

Asked how young people in Brazil could join the competition, Lee said that the IAA “footprints” in Latin America were not as strong, but that they had some educational networks to help youth there participate in the competition.  Mr. Shetty added that the United Nations Millennium Campaign had created several advertisements with Brazilian advertising agencies, which had disseminated the Millennium Development Goals campaigns widely.

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For information media • not an official record