WASHINGTON, DC—“Empowering Women, Empowering Agriculture: Lay's Farm Equal,” a campaign conducted by Edelman India and Leo Burnett on behalf of Pepsico’s Lay’s brand, was named the best public relations program in the world at tonight’s Global SABRE Awards ceremony in Washington, DC.

The event honored the 40 best public relations campaigns in the world, selected from the winners of our SABRE Awards competitions around the world, including North America, EMEA, the Asia-Pacific region, South Asia, Latin America, and Africa. With close to 4,000 entries around the world, the SABRE Awards are the largest competition for public relations programming.

Lay's Farm Equal empowered Indian women in agriculture, involving the development of women-first tools, ensuring comfort and efficiency. The campaign had earlier taken home Best in Show at the Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards in Singapore last month.

The “Empowering Women” campaign ranked first at Global ahead of a strong field of four other Best in Show finalists, in order:

2. McDonald's Birthday Meals: Grimace's Birthday—McDonald’s with Golin
3. Black Hair is Professional—Dove with Ogilvy
4. Finland's Energy-Wisest School—Caverion with Kurio
5. Message in a Mithai Box—Rahat Bakers with Ogilvy Pakistan

Weber Shandwick led the way with four campaigns among the Global winners (as well as two campaigns from what was Prime Weber Shandwick, now independent again). Ogilvy PR had three winners, as did Current Global; Burson (including its Jeffrey Group operation in Latin America) and Golin also have two finalists each.

On the client side, Unilever’s Dove brand was the only one to receive multiple trophies.

A complete list of Global SABRE winners, in order from number one to number 40, can be found here.