With a whopping 144 awards this year, DDB Canada stands proudly at the top of the heap, beating out worthy adversary Leo Burnett by more than 100 points. It seems that funny business was the name of the game for DDB this year, with humorous campaigns pulling in the most hardware.

The agency's "Must Drink More Milk" spots for the B.C. Dairy Foundation had their teen target demo laughing and scratching their heads as they watched Russian dolls and playing cards act out scenes in which a chug of milk would have come in handy.

The now-famous Midas "Chase" spot had cops chasing robbers in the Canadian snow - and not getting very far. And print ads for the Vancouver Convention Centre featured your 1970s-style conference hall worst nightmares.

Of course, who can forget those sexy sumo wrestlers who engaged in perhaps the most seductive car wash spot ever for the Subaru Forester, as well as in print, online and anywhere consumers could handle their hotness. The sumos helped DDB sweep the newly restructured CMAs with six awards, including Best of the Best.

"You'll find humour in a lot of our work," explains DDB Vancouver CD Dean Lee (more about him on p. 33). "When you just feed up a sale price
or facts and figures, it goes in one ear and out the other, versus when you entertain, it becomes memorable."

But it wasn't all fun and games. A campaign for B.C. non-profit the Looking Glass Foundation forced consumers to see eating disorders in a different light through a TV spot featuring women leaving clues about their illness with the tag "not every suicide note looks like a suicide note." Ambient pieces like a hairbrush and spool of thread with notes attached about how they pertained to people with eating disorders were included in the awareness and fundraising push.

Work for B.C. Hydro and the Canadian Tourism Commission also rounded out DDB's winning year, as they collected trophies from 11 out of the 16 shows counted in the CRC.

Read on to see how the other agencies fared, and who did some impressive moving up the list this year.

Top 20 agencies

1    DDB Canada    345
2    Leo Burnett Canada    240
3    Taxi     202
4    Rethink    185
5    Cossette    177
6    BBDO Toronto    148
7    John St.     124
8    Juniper Park    96
9    Lg2    74
10    Zig    72
11    Saatchi & Saatchi Canada    53
11    Sid Lee    53
13    Target    51
14    Proximity Canada    48
15    Doug Agency    47
16    Ogilvy Toronto    44
17    TBWA\Vancouver    41
18    Grey Canada    40
18    Lowe Roche    40
20    Arc Worldwide    35

Agencies on the rise

See the full list of agencies