Hensley Segal Rentschler wanted to do something “really out there” with its call for entries for the Cincinnati Addy awards, so two creatives put their heads together.
The result was a lateral-view X-ray film, sent to some 900 ad professionals in the area, showing an Addy implanted in a human skull. Accompanying copy suggests, “You’re always telling people not to mess with your ideas. … Winning a statue is the best way to get that through their heads.”
The X-ray, sent by “ACC Radiology Associates” (which coincidentally shares an office with the Advertising Club of Cincinnati), was accompanied by contest rules and an entry form.
Tom Rentschler, an executive creative director, and Pete Landversicht, a copywriter and chair of the local Addys, were the brains behind the project. “The X-ray was kind of a nonthreatening way to do something violent without being truly distasteful,” said Rentschler.
The execution has prompted a surge of calls from people concerned that they’ve been sent someone else’s X-rays, said Anne Campbell, the ad club’s executive director. “They’re not opening them because an X-ray is such a personal thing,” she said. When she explains what’s inside, the callers sheepishly start laughing.
“It’s just been a scream,” she said.
–Jenn Goddu
Skull Duggery
