The Golden Age of Advertising Is Celebrated at 2011 CLIO Awards

NEW YORK, May 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, May 19, hundreds of acclaimed creatives from all over the world gathered to celebrate the 52nd annual CLIO Awards at the Museum of Natural History on New York's Upper West Side. The awards portion of the night, during which the best work of 2010 was celebrated, took place in a standing-room-only packed theater. Outspoken comedian and awards host Lewis Black did not disappoint the crowd and kept the audience laughing as the big winners of the year were honored on stage.

Director of the CLIO Awards Karl Vontz summed it up in the wee hours of the evening: "Tonight was a very memorable CLIO ceremony, and we heard so many great things from those attending. I am very proud of this year's CLIO team—I know it takes a village to produce such a well-run and successful event. The venue, production, decor and especially this year's winners were amazing."  

One of the biggest winners of the night was a campaign for American Express entitled "Small Business Saturday," which Black described as "bleeding-edge, barrier-breaking work." The campaign took home a Grand CLIO for Content & Contact as well as the Special Recognition Award for Facebook Integrated Media. The campaign was produced for AMEX, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Digitas Inc. American Express executive Leslie Berland, accepting the Facebook Integrated Media award for the group, noted: "Over 1.2 million people in three weeks created a national day. This shows you what the power of a great idea, fantastic team and Facebook can do. "

Accepting the Content & Contact Grand CLIO award were Susan Sobbott, president of OPEN from American Express; Carolyn Everson, VP of marketing, Facebook; Mark Taylor, VP, group creative director, Crispin Porter + Bogusky; and Mark Kiernan, SVP marketing, Digitas Inc. After picking up the coveted statue, Kiernan said, "It took an amazing partnership to make this happen. We all worked together, it was a close-knit family, and we pulled off the impossible, and it was exactly how we imagined it." Sobbott added, "The CLIO is such a wonderful recognition of the tremendous work that a group of people come together to do with a common mission and that's what 'Small Business Saturday' was about—this common mission, and it is so nice that the industry is recognizing that."

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Joe Pytka, best known for his work on Pepsi's "Archeology", McDonald's "Nothing but Net," Nike's "Bo Knows" and the "This Is Your Brain on Drugs" spots. He told the audience that he was very touched and that his award really belonged to the agencies that fight so hard for their concepts, so that he can have all the fun. "This has been a great ride, and it's all because of what these guys do." Pytka's advice for future creative hopefuls was "just work hard and respect the people you work with."

The CLIO for Agency of the Year went to AlmapBBDO for the second year in a row. Cesar Finamori of AlmapBBDO expressed his thrill with the accolade by sharing this: "There is no formula for winning, but what I can say, if I can summarize all the work that we do, is that we really have fun doing it and try to do the best we can. We spend more time with the guys in the agency than with our families, so it has to be something fun for us to do it."

Coming all the way from Germany to accept the Innovative Grand CLIO, Doerte Spengler-Ahrens, executive creative director at Jung von Matt, accepted the award for the agency's anti-printing PDF campaign, WWF, which aims to reduce consumption of paper. When accepting the award, Spengler-Ahrens took to the stage with only an iPhone and told the audience "As you can see, my speech is not on paper. Anyone can do it."

The agency Fallon was inducted into the CLIO Hall of Fame for its work on a spot for BMW of North America that featured Madonna, and as Bruce Bildsten, David Carter and Brian DiLorenzo took to the stage to accept their CLIO they also pointed out that, "Ten years ago, Facebook and YouTube did not exist. Over 100 people worked on this ballsy spot." Later in the evening, Don Schneider was given a Hall of Fame CLIO for his work with Pepsi.

Other notable winners of the night included Smuggler, a film, TV, commercial and music video production company, which took home its first ever CLIO as Production Company of the Year. For the second time, Nike nabbed Advertiser of the Year (the company also won in 2009). There were also two Grand CLIO awards presented to JWT for its work with Human Rights Watch in the category of Design, and Interactive was presented to @radical.media for "The Wilderness Downtown." The night rounded out with an Honorary CLIO being given to Phil Rosenthal, executive producer of the long-running and popular sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" and a touching tribute by Rusty Robertson of Stand Up to Cancer regarding the CLIO Dream Team and the fight for a cure along with Laura Ziskin, SU2C co-founder and executive producer of the landmark 2008 and 2010 Stand Up to Cancer fundraising broadcasts.

For the first time, 2011 CLIO Awards winners were announced before the show; results and videos of winning entries were posted online on Tuesday, May 17. All winners can be found at CLIOAwards.com.

About the CLIO Awards

The CLIO Awards is one of the world's most recognized awards competitions for advertising, design and communications. The CLIO Awards has maintained its original commitment to celebrate and reward creative excellence, honoring a powerful form of communication and its impact on modern culture. At the same time, the CLIO Awards remains focused on evolving with the industry in order to acknowledge the most current, breakthrough work. To this day, CLIO's iconic statue is the most widely recognized and coveted symbol of the industry's creative accomplishments.

About Prometheus Global Media

Prometheus Global Media engages people and marketers at the intersection of culture's most powerful forces—music, media and entertainment. This connectivity makes Prometheus a potent catalyst in influencing popular culture. It's leading assets include: music (Billboard and its related conferences and events, including the Billboard Music Awards), entertainment (The Hollywood Reporter, Backstage, ShowEast, Cineasia, and CineEurope); and advertising & marketing (Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Adweek Conferences and the CLIO Awards).

Media Contact:
Jenn Blum, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR
212-367-6924
[email protected]

SOURCE Prometheus Global Media