Best in show: Carphone Warehouse (Chi and Partners)

On 17 November 2006, Kristofer Ström posted his hand-drawn stop-motion video for Minilogue on YouTube. That was nearly three million hits ago. Many of those viewings were by bored advertising creatives trawling for ideas. More than a few found themselves charmed by its innocence, simplicity and invention, and resolved to harness these qualities to the Great Engine of Commercial Desire. I was one of them. But for one reason or another Ström’s handiwork remained virgin and intact. Until now

Carphone Warehouse has departed from its usual offer-led retail by using work that’s almost identical. The simple line drawing lends itself perfectly to the client’s agenda of transparency and choice in a world of ever-changing technology. OK, so this campaign is not going to have your Hoxton Havaianistas doing backflips but I think it’s pretty damn good. What’s even better is that the agency has eschewed the crude rip-off the rest of us had in mind and used Ström to create the ads. This may seem bleeding obvious to most people, but in the light of Sony Bunnygate, the Great Cog Swindle and the Letterman Sony Balls-up, it’s refreshing to see the original artist acknowledged