Rethink's Rob Sweetman tops the AD pack this year, and can take credit for Science World's quirky "We can explain" campaign, which poked holes in ordinary transit and OOH ads with three-dimensional executions made of pencils, kitty litter and, er, sneezes. Sweetman, who finished fourth last year, also worked on Coast Capital Savings, B.C. Lions and NHL 2K9 in 2008, his fifth year at Rethink.

Second-place winner Anthony Chelvanathan makes his first appearance in the Top Three, thanks to his cute and colourful cartoon dogs, cats and bunnies for the Toronto Humane Society. And in third place for the second year in a row is Rethink's Ian Grais for his art direction on Playland.

What was the state of Science World's advertising before you and Rethink took a crack at it?

Like many museums, they did event-based marketing. This drove attendance when something cool was in town, but wasn't doing much for them during the other 42 weeks of the year. We decided to promote Science World itself, and drive attendance year-round.

The media and art direction for Science World is very mischievous.

I guess spraying transit riders in the face with water could be considered mischievous by some - however, we just try to keep it fun and interactive, much like Science World does.

When did you know that the campaign was going to be awesome?

I didn't really know it was good until we were briefed on it for the second year in a row - the year after the first fact-based campaign. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't top it. We couldn't think of a better campaign than the fact-based one. To me that seemed like the mark of a good idea.

How much time do you spend there?

I still go there all the time. I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old and we love the water exhibits, the bugs, the audio exhibits, the wind machine and all the shows in the theatres.

Favourite science fast fact?

Herrings communicate by farting.

Runner-up • Anthony Chelvanathan, Leo Burnett

Chelvanathan has worked alongside Judy John and Israel Diaz (see p. 40) at Leo Burnett for five years, on brands such as P&G, Kellogg's, James Ready and Campbell's.

When did the idea for cartoon animals for the Toronto Humane Society come about? Where were you sitting, what were you eating, who said what?

That's the great thing about working with others: multiple brains are usually better than one. And it can't be healthy to talk to yourself, so it is great to have a few people around to bounce ideas off. I can't say we had this idea going into it. But if you talk back and forth with people it usually ends up like this. An unrelated word may lead you to the right place. It's a crazy process.

Any reason for the specific animals you chose?

They came to me in a dream and begged me to adopt each one. They actually sold themselves with the lines we had written. The whole experience was uncanny!