The ad, which depicts a group of youths sending a passenger train into a rollercoaster loop, was first broadcast on Norwegian television in June last year. Since then the ad has collected a series of awards all over the world and has been shown approximately 1.65 million times on websites such as break.com and youtube.com. 

Interest in science subjects

“It’s fun to see a film intended to create interest in science subjects among young people receiving so much attention,” says Hydro chief communication officer Inger Sethov. The film carries the following message: “There are many young engineers out there. We’re looking forward to when they grow up.”

The coveted first prize in the commercial ads festival in Cannes tops the list over the awards received. This festival, held in June this year, is reckoned to be the premier world competition for commercial ads. Here Hydro’s film was awarded the gold medal in the face of competition from major multinational corporations such as Toyota, Nike and Honda. And this came after the film had already landed the gold medal in the corresponding European ad championships, Epica, in November last year.

British and American awards

Moreover, the film gained the “Silver Award” during the American advertizing festival, Clio Awards, and in May it was also awarded the “Yellow Pencil” in the UK-based D&AD Awards, where only 63 of a total of 25,000 contributions were awarded a prize.

Torbjørn Madsen, the copywriter responsible for the ad, thinks that the film’s intention has been achieved.

“With this film we wanted to show how working as an engineer can be fun; that the profession does not just involve dry mathematical calculations, but is also about creating some amazing things,” he says.

Chronological list over awards for Hydro’s train film ad

• June 2007: Landed Norwegian TV2’s  “Sølvfisken” award
• November 2007: Epica gold medal 
  o Epica is recognized as the European ad championships. 
  o First prize in category “Film: Professional equipment & services”. 
  o www.epica-awards.com
• January 2008: Top four in “Gullfisken” on Norwegian TV2. 
  o “Gullfisken” is the Norwegian advertizing industry’s award. Viewers vote for the winner. 
• March 2008: Won the “Gullblyanten” award
  o The premier Norwegian advertizing industry prize, awarded by the industry itself.
• May 2008: Gained “Silver Award” at Clio Awards. 
  o Clio Awards is the American advertizing industry festival. 
  o http://www.clioawards.com/winners/index.cfm?medium_id=1&award_id=1&search=0&maxrow=30
• May 2008: Awarded “Yellow Pencil” for electronically distributed commercials at D&AD Awards. 
  o This UK-based competition had 25,000 contenders, of which only 63 gained awards. 
• June 2008: Awarded the highest accolade in the corporate ad section, a highly  competitive category at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. 
  o The festival is recognized as the most prestigious commercial advertizing festival in the world. 
  o www.canneslions.com
• Youtube.com: (uploaded from several different sources, with a total of 350,000 viewings): http://youtube.com/watch?v=hlczxXqez-Y
• Break.com: http://www.break.com/index/norweigian-kids-mess-with-train.html (around 1,000,000 viewings)
• Veryfunnyads.com: (roughly 400,000 viewings)