T V campaigns dominated the 84th annual Art

T V campaigns dominated the 84th annual Art Directors Club awards this year, with commercials for the American Legacy Foundation, Soken DVD players and Adidas taking six of the eight gold cubes awarded in the advertising category. Print work, however, failed to impress the international jury headed by Taxi chairman Paul Lavoie, which awarded no golds in print. Top winners included Euro RSCG Flagship in Thailand's crowd-pleasing campaign for Soken DVD, featuring TV spots describing a movie in the manner of a faulty DVD player (skipping and freezing, etc). It picked up two golds, one for the campaign, and another for the spot "Kill Bill Kill Bill." The American Legacy Foundation's "Truth" ads, by Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami and Arnold in Boston, also won two golds, for the "Seek truth" campaign and the spot "Voice." TBWA\180's "Impossible is nothing" work took home two golds: one for an Olympics campaign and one for a basketball campaign."I was a little disappointed in the print, and that's reflected in the awards," explains Lavoie. "[But] it's very much an international awards show, the work is very eclectic. Overall, I'm quite pleased."A total of 164 honors were awarded in advertising: eight golds, 16 silvers, 47 distinctive merits and 93 merits. The Soken campaign won kudos from judges for being a well-executed idea that demonstrated a specific product attribute. "The Soken campaign is a standout. It's a beautiful idea and beautiful work because of the simplicity of it," says juror Emma Cookson, global planning chief at Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York.The two other advertising gold cubes were awarded to a spot for Vim cleanser by Zig in Canada, showing what seems to be a prison visit but is actually a daughter visiting her mom as she cleans a shower, and to a guerrilla campaign by Net#Work BBDO in Johannesburg, South Africa, for Ghost Pops snacks. Cole & Weber/Red Cell in Portland, Ore., won the only gold awarded in the inaugural hybrid category, which honors a campaign that displays innovation across a range of media. The campaign included a cable access show about Ranier beer, as well as TV, Web and print executionsurging consumers to "Remember Ranier beer." The campaign had "the capacity to engage and transcend every medium consistently," Lavoie says. No awards were given out in another inaugural category, "Playground," which was intended to honor work that never ran. Although there were 108 entries, none were deemed gold worthy. "When there's no criteria, maybe that's more difficult. It's the most difficult award to win," Lavoie says.In the interactive competition, judged by a separate jury, Taxi in Canada picked up the two golds awarded, for a Mini campaign.And in the graphic design contest, judged by a jury chaired by Emily Oberman, founder of Number 17, seven golds were awarded: Prologue Films in Los Angeles won for titles for "Wimbledon;" MTV Networks in New York won for "DeGrassi 100 Percent Intense IM Campaign;" Draft in Tokyo won for the editorial design of a book, "Brooch;" the School of Visual Arts won for editorial design of "The Senior Library;" Sascha Koeth Motiondesign in Germany won for "MTV artbreaks;" CalArts in Valencia, Calif., won for titles of the movie "Ratcatcher;" and Cyan in Germany won for editorial book design of "Friedrich Christian Flick Collection im Hamburger Bahnhof."Gold, silver and merit winners in advertising, graphic design and interactive will be honored at a dinner at the ADC on June 2.

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T V campaigns dominated the 84th annual Art

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