MUMBAI: As part of a three-day festival which included several gala award ceremonies, screenings and parties, New York festival held its annual ceremony for the 49th International Television, Cinema and Radio Advertising competition a few days ago.

Ad executives and creatives from dozens of countries from around the world stepped up on stage to receive the four Grand Award top prizes as well as Gold, Silver and Bronze World Medals in the ceremony

Medalists were selected from an entry pool of 2,500 television and radio ads from 83 countries this year. More than 100 creative directors representing 41 countries chose the best in product and consumer advertising, as well as public service advertising.

England, Australia and the US each took top honours with Grand Awards, and they each topped the Gold World Medal list -- the U.S. with 10, followed by the U.K. with 4 and Australia with 3. Germany and Canada also came away with 3 golds each.

Also at the evening award ceremony, the United Nations' Department of Public Information (UNDPI) honoured agencies from Brazil, France and Indonesia with a special award for public service advertising. Since 1990, the UNDPI has recognised outstanding work at the New York festival's annual gala that best exemplifies the goals and ideals of the United Nations.

This year's Gold UNDPI Award went to Leo Burnett Publicidade Ltda (Brazil) for Favela. The print ad aimed to raise awareness about poverty. The Silver UNDPI Award went to Leo Burnett Paris (France) for The Hostages. This was a campaign for Enfance et Partage, an non-governmental organisation working to prevent child abuse. The winner of the Bronze UNDPI Award was DDB Jakarta (Indonesia), for Supermarket Baby. This television campaign was about the illegal trafficking of infants for adoption.

The Television, Cinema & Radio Advertising and Awards ceremonies were part of a three day festival which includes daytime screenings of the award-winning work and more gala awards ceremonies for film and television.