-By Gregory Solman

LOS ANGELES DDB/LA's first major campaign for Activision and TBWA\Media Arts Lab's continuing "Get a Mac" effort for Apple dominated the 42nd annual Belding Awards competition here on Wednesday.

A team led by CCO Mark Monteiro at Omnicom's DDB\LA, Venice, Calif., won the Sweepstakes award, as well as four Belding Bowls, for its Call of Duty 4: World Leaders campaign, which humorously translated footage of dictators and strongmen into sometimes perverse promotions of the Activision game's play.

Five executions on the Call of Duty 4 microsite, all took awards. Kevin McCarthy and Jeff Spiegel were the group CDs under Monteiro, working with acds Marcus Wesson and Miguel Caballero. The campaign was also awarded two bowls for complete interactive campaign and for emerging and new media.
 
Monteiro commented after, acting as a proxy for Vladimir Putin, "Have reviewed Belding results. Very happy to give ten nukes."
 
The Media Arts Lab at Omnicom's TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., won nine Belding bowls, including five for television commercials featuring the clever banter between men representing Apple and PC computers. MAL was also awarded bowls for best TV campaign, best online advertising campaign, best integrated campaigns, and best single advertising unit ("Don't Give Up"). The team at MAL under CCO Lee Clow included ecds Duncan Milner and Eric Grunbaum and ACDs Scott Trattner (art) and Jason Sperling (copy).
 
Belding Bowls were also awarded to Grupo Gallegos, Dailey & Associates; RPA; Team One; TBWA\C\D and Deutsch/LA.
 
The point of purchase bowl went to WPP Young & Rubicam Brands for Land Rover ("LR Adventure Gear print campaign"). DDB and TBWA's Tequila were both awarded bowls for best microsite, respectively for Activision's Call of Duty 4 and Sony PlayStation's Battle of the Gods.
 
Hosted by David Angelo, president of independent davidandgoliath, El Segundo, Calif., the presentations were peppered with product placement jokes and included comedy breaks wherein winners were interrupted by the announcer as they exited the stage to be given additional, goofy prizes, including serenades by YouTube star Tay Zonday ("Chocolate Rain"), who also performed a Beldings song to conclude the show and a photo opportunity posing on a couch with porn star Ron Jeremy.
 
The awards were sponsored by thinkLA, led by Paul Ratzky, president of Publicis Groupe's TeamOne. A list of all winners is available at www.thinkla.org.