March 19, 2008 — A radio ad for McDonald's helped MLB Creative take top honors at the territory's annual ADDY Awards, with the Best of Show honor one of 16 awards for the agency.
Thirty-five local agencies, design firms, media and support companies from St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix entered the competition, the local leg of the national ADDY competition. Winners were announced Saturday in a gala event at Marriott's Frenchman's Reef.
The event featured special guest David Carradine, "movie and advertising celebrity as well as leader of his band, the Cosmic Rescue Team," according to a news release from ADDY organizers. The star of the hit 1970s TV show "Kung Fu" shows up regularly on TV these days in Yellow Book commercials.
MLB Creative won Best of Show for a McDonald's Quarter Pounder holiday radio spot. The agency also won Best of Interactive for the Southland Gaming website, Best of Radio for McDonald's, a Judges' Choice award for design excellence and 12 other awards.
"MLB believes that great work is not only a product of talent but of having clients who will give their agency the freedom to be creative and innovative," MBL founder and CEO Terri Brown told the crowd, according to the release.
On St. Thomas, Austin Advertising, the Paint Depot and Lambert Media Team scored multiple awards. Austin received the Best of Print Award for Interiors and Lambert Media Team won the Best of TV for FirstBank.
St. Croix agencies 620 Design and Grass Hut Design took three awards each, with 620 earning Best Public Service Award for Project Safe Neighborhoods.
St. John weighed in with 12 awards recognizing the new St. John Magazine, the Sun Times and Tradewinds for design and editorial excellence.
Richard Doumeng of Bolongo Bay Beach Resort honored Carver Farrow, principal of Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, for his leadership in the Project Safe Neighborhood program. Ad Club Founder Bob Austin presented his special Founder's Award for outstanding contributions to the advertising club and the field of advertising to Terri Brown.
The ADDY Awards will be featured in an hour-long program airing at 7 p.m. March 29 on the local CBS and NBC affiliates. The program will include the awards presentation, red carpet interviews and performances by David Carradine and the Cosmic Rescue Team. The broadcast is sponsored by FirstBank.
"The Ad Club of the VI is a member of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), which represents thousands of advertising companies in the United States and the Caribbean," the release said. "The ADDY Awards are sponsored by AAF and are the advertising industry's most comprehensive and prestigious competition recognizing creative excellence in numerous categories of various media types."
The judging took place on St. Thomas by Mike Weber, former broadcast personality and president of CMR Studios; Tony Pearman, CCO and partner of Access and former national AAF ADDY chairperson; and April Mraz, creative director and CEO of Open Creative Group.
"All winning local ADDY Awards are forwarded to the district competition; winners of that competition go forward to compete with the best advertisements from the U.S. and Caribbean in the National ADDY Competition," the release said.
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