Is it any wonder the CA Advertising Annual arrives during the holiday season? Mine arrived today via the postal service. Same cast of characters as always. You don’t even need to study it. Put the $24 (newstand price) towards some whiskey, is my advise. Or beer, if you favor malt beverages.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Fallon, TBWA Chiat/Day, Arnold, Carmichael Lynch, DeVito Verdi and Wieden + Kennedy are the big winners (with more than five citations). Volkswagon, Porche, Harley-Davidson, BMW, Mini, Apple, Nike, Citibank, Molson, Miller Brewing, Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Time are the some of the clients said agencies did award-winning work for.
Lately, I’ve noted what an echo chamber the blogosphere can be. The same is true of advertising. When a judge sees an ad for Volkswagon he or she knows it’s great, just like they know it’s from Arnold. To not vote for it would be blashphemy. Plus, the judge has friends at Arnold. It’s awfully nice to reward one’s friends.
In all seriousness, I do like one of the Volkswagon ads immensely. The visual is a pile of ticket stubs for Widespread Panic concerts. The “Drivers Wanted” tag is almost lost in the layout, which is intentional, of course. “MAKE THE LOGO SMALLER,” I can almost hear Ron Lawner saying. Anyway, this ad reminds me of the VW bus crying a tear for Jerry Garcia ad, which ran in 1995 when he passed.