A "political" campaign for a fair go for redheads earned two pupils from Karamu High School in Hastings top place in the secondary school section of the Fair Go ad awards last night. Sixth-formers Michael Rowlands and Stephen Bennett beat off the competition with their 30-second ad for a fictitious politicalparty. The duo created the Ginga Party to represent oppressed redheads (Michael has a mop of red hair), calling on them to rise up against the oppression they suffer. Michael was the performer and Stephen the cameraman. Their win was the second for Karamu pupils. Another team from the school won in 2000. Teacher Tom Hunter said the boys deserved their award, which would be a valuable addition to their portfolios should they choose to follow careers in the media. Their win will bring Karamu High $2000. Principal Mike Purcell said today the award came from a combination of "great teaching, modern facilities and talented students". Meanwhile, an ad featuring two animated bulls with substantial cow-pulling appeal was voted the country's best TV advertisement. Viewers gave the Toyota Hilux ad more votes than the other four finalists combined for the 18th annual Fair Go awards. "We set out to produce ads that New Zealanders love," said Andrew Stone, chief executive of Saatchi and Saatchi New Zealand, which produced the ad. The bulls in the ad call a ram a "sheep shagger", which prompted 17 complaints to the Advertising Standards Complaints Board that the advertisement was offensive. "Some of the feedback was good, and the way some people complained, you wonder if they had a sense of humour, to be honest," Mr Stone said. The complaints were not upheld. Defending the title it won last year, Tower Insurance's "no worries" campaign again took out worst ad. "It's probably a category we don't want to dominate for too much longer," said Tower chief executive Pieter Lindhout. Tower had lured many new customers on the back of the campaign in the last 15 months, but it would soon be time for a new approach, he said.
