New York Festivals® to Honor Advertising Legends Graham Warsop, The Jupiter Drawing Room and Akira Kagami, Dentsu with Lifetime Achievement Awards

New York, NY – April 29, 2010: New York Festivals 2010 International Advertising Awards will honor with Lifetime Achievement Awards legendary advertising executives Graham Warsop, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Jupiter Drawing Room (South Africa) & Partners, and Akira Kagami, Global Executive Creative Director of Dentsu, Japan. Both executives will be presented with their awards on Saturday, June 12th at the 2010 awards ceremony in Shanghai, China. The NYF Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes prominent industry leaders whose accomplishments and contributions have advanced the field of advertising and made a lasting impression in the advertising world.

“I am left in no doubt as to the magnitude of the honour you confer upon me…I confess, as well as being honoured to be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award, I remain hopeful I may have still have approximately half my career ahead of me! I am thrilled to be receiving this award in China, arguably the world’s most exciting advertising market,” Said Mr. Warsop.

Graham Warsop, an Englishman, graduated with a Masters degree from Cambridge University and qualifying as a barrister, he intended to practice law. Following his heart, he spent a year attempting to write a novel. His advertising career began when he became short on funds while visiting family in South Africa and took a job as junior copywriter.

Eighteen months later, thirty year old Mr. Warsop founded The Jupiter Drawing Room, (the agency is named after a room in a bordello in a Guy de Maupassant short story!). In the twenty years that followed, measured by Creative Circle points, Mr Warsop would become the most awarded creative in the history of South African advertising and The Jupiter Drawing Room was destined to become one of the world’s most awarded independent agencies. Mr. Warsop and Jupiter have played a significant role in building South Africa’s global reputation as a developing country with a strong creative pedigree. Today, with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, The Jupiter Drawing Room & Partners is the largest independent agency group on the African continent. In 2009 it was ranked (by the Creative Circle) as the number one creative agency group and remains the only African agency to have been ranked one of the five most creative agencies in the world by US trade publication Advertising Age.

"Graham's record speaks for itself, as does the success of The Jupiter Drawing Room. Presenting him with this award will be such an honor,” said New York Festivals’ President Michael O’Rourke. “His stellar achievements in the field of advertising truly merit a Lifetime Achievement Award.”

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