Media shop PHD Canada took one of only two Grand Prix titles at the Internationalist's 2009 Awards for Innovation in Media, underscoring a strong performance for Canadian agencies.

The Montreal-based Touche!PHD won the top honour for its Suicide Action Foundation "Abrupt Endings" campaign, which interrupted regular television and radio programing with a message of suicide prevention. Television shows were stopped by a black screen and copy that read "Cette fin prématurée vous surprend? Imaginez quand il s'agit de la vie d'un proche. (Does this premature end surprise you? What if this was the life of someone you loved)."

The campaign was created in partnership with Astral Media and creative agency Sid Lee.

The second Grand Prix went to Starcom Australia for its work with Pedigree pet foods.

PHD also won silver for its work on Unilever's Becel "Do One Small Thing to Love Your Heart" concert, which simulcast performances by Diana Krall and Chantal Kreviazuk through Cineplex Odeon's theatre network. The concert later aired on Canwest television stations.

Both of PHD's award-winning campaigns were given gold medals at home at the Media Innovation Awards, and are finalists at the upcoming Festival of Media Awards in Valencia, Spain.

Of the Internationalist's 35 Grand Prix and medal awards, Canadian agencies won seven. (The United States led the country rankings with 10 awards.)

Canadian gold winners included OMD Canada (which like PHD reports to Omnicom's OMD Worldwide division) for its work on last year's Doritos campaign for FritoLay Canada, MediaVest Canada for Kraft Canada's Tassimo coffee brand, and Starcom Canada for Nintendo.

PHD's silver medal performance was matched by MediaVest's Cheez Whiz campaign for Kraft and Starcom's Swiffer work for Procter & Gamble.