Advertising agency Grey Dhaka's zero-electricity air cooler made from plastic bottles has won the prestigious Gold Lion award in this year's Cannes advertising festival.

This is the first Cannes award for any Bangladeshi advertisement firm.

The air cooler, which can reduce room temperature by up to five degrees Celsius, grabbed the accolade at the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the French town on Monday.

“The first-ever Cannes Lion for Bangladesh! Grey Dhaka has done it,” wrote Gousul Alam Shaon, managing director of Grey Dhaka, in his Facebook page, posting a photo where he was seen holding the award with a big smile.

“Grey Dhaka takes immense pride in receiving the world's most prestigious advertising award,” he said in a statement yesterday.

In its way to winning the award in the product design (solution) category, Grey Dhaka beat more than 500 nominees from various countries, according to the statement.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is the largest celebration of the great and the good of the advertising world. The festival is now in its 62nd year.

The annual weeklong advertising festival, called the industry's Academy Awards, honours the most creative and effective ad campaigns from around the world. This year's programme started on Saturday.

Grey Dhaka, the Bangladeshi wing of New York-based advertising agency Grey, came up with an idea to keep rural housing in Bangladesh, which has no electricity, cool, say its officials.

A model of the zero-electricity air cooler made from plastic bottles. Photo: Collected

The cooling system consists of used plastic bottles and a piece of cardboard that fits in any window.

The device is made on a board, with bottleneck-sized holes cut in a grid pattern. Re-purposed plastic bottles are cut in half, and their narrow ends are put into the holes.

Based on the direction of the wind and the pressure created by the airflow, hot air enters the open end of the bottles and cool air comes out of the other end, making the room cooler, say Grey Dhaka officials.

The Eco-Cooler designed by  Ashis Paul, creative supervisor of Grey Dhaka, does not need electricity.

After Ashis Paul came up with the idea, Grey carried out trial runs in a number of slums in Dhaka in April last year and piloted a project in Nilphamari and Rajbari in August the same year, add the officials.

Grey Dhaka says the Eco-Coolers have been installed in some villages in Nilphamari, Rajbari, Manikganj, Rajshahi and Rangpur.

The blueprint for making the Eco-Cooler was put up online for everyone to download for free.

The innovation can help millions of people across the country beat the heat during hot summer when the temperature goes up to 40 degrees Celsius. It also comes with almost zero-cost and zero-carbon emission, say Grey Dhaka officials.

With availability of discarded plastic bottles, the device might also help reduce the demand for electricity during scorching temperatures in a country where many still do not have access to electricity.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Manami Sunjia Hossain, a senior official of Grey Dhaka, said the solution was so easy that anyone could make the device anytime.

“This is one of the cheapest solutions. It offers a huge potential for the developing countries where many people can't afford air coolers.”

She also said Grey Dhaka had already received response from many companies in France, Japan and China.