The mood was reserved at last week's Amer ican Advertising Federation Hall of Achieve ment luncheon, as several inductees made reference to Sept. 11. Still, the two-hour event at New York's Waldorf-Astoria attracted more than 650 guests and had its share of laughs and one-liners, including a fake ad and a smattering of British humor.
The ad was a tribute from San Francisco's Black Rocket Euro RSCG to inductee Karen Edwards, former Yahoo! worldwide market ing chief. Opening with Yahoo!'s question mark logo, the ad envisioned what the brand might have been without Edwards. Cut to shiny, happy Yahoo! users reading robotically from cue cards, plus cheesy screen wipes and a thumping rhythm—all an apparent dig at AOL. As users gave a thumbs-up and a "Thanks, Yahoo!," the tag appeared: "Every thing to everybody ... everywhere!"
Another inductee, Ogilvy & Mather's Tony Wright, was feted with a Monty Python-esque video that ended with an animated chorus of hallelujahs featuring mouth-flapping head shots of David Ogilvy, Lee Clow, Rick Boyko, Richard Kirshenbaum, et al. Introduced as an openly gay executive, Wright quipped, "I'm very proud to be the only openly British recipient." He then quoted D.O.: "Make sure you develop your eccentricities while you're young, so when you get old, they don't think you're going senile."