Agency News

NEW YORK

Weiss Stagliano Partners launched an estimated $6 million campaign for the National Geographic Channel on May 27 during a Pearl Harbor special on NBC. A 60-second spot, “Life on Earth,” shows a montage of wild animals in an array of natural habitats. The 30-second “Direct TV” illustrates a brief history of how National Geographic has brought the world to America. The tagline for the campaign is “The continuing story of life on Earth.”

Norelco broke five Father’s Day-themed spots last week to promote its electric shavers. Keeping the tagline, “Put it to the test,” the spots also feature a voiceover that says, “Doesn’t your guy deserve a Norelco shaver?” All the spots from D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles in New York show the everyday chivalrous acts performed by dads, husbands and boyfriends. In one spot, a couple share a bathroom mirror as they prepare for work in the morning. As the woman struggles with an earring, which falls into the toilet, the man doesn’t miss a beat while brushing his teeth and retrieves the earring. In another spot, a woman is shown in the driver’s seat of a parked car on a rainy night, looking at her nails. Cut to outside as a man is seen changing a tire on the car in the downpour. A third ad shows a dad risking life and limb as he crosses a busy highway to retrieve his daughter’s doll. Sources said the client will spend $3 million in media for the three-week run.

CMG Communications won an Addy award at the District Two American Advertising Awards ceremony for its Virgin Atlantic Airways Las Vegas radio campaign. The effort consisted of two spots: “Segue (Up)” and “Segue (Ask).” CMG also earned two Citations of Excellence for its Virgin “Smile” billboard and “Pub” TV spot. The Las Vegas radio campaign launched in May 2000, coinciding with Virgin’s introduction of its Las Vegas-to-London route. The billboard ran in several cities in the U.S. CMG is an advertising, marketing and public relations firm based in New York.

The Association of Asian American Advertising Agencies changed its name to the Asian American Advertising Federation and expanded the number of its board members from 7 to 15. The new name reflects the organization’s expanded mission beyond advertising-agency interests to include Asian American media and corporate-advertiser goals and issues. The board expanded to include media and client representatives. The organization’s Web site is accessible via either www.a5s.org or www.3af.org.

Smith & Jones won a Macromedia People’s Choice Award at the Macromedia User Conference held recently in New York. The competition allows Macromedia developers and designers to honor new digital works created by their peers. Smith & Jones received the award for the Zero2Nine CD-ROM it produced for client Vassar Bros. Hospital in Poughkeepsie. The CD-ROM was designed to generate awareness of the hospital’s maternity services and provide information on topics important to expecting parents.

A&E Television Networks in New York, working through Horizon Media, also in New York, signed with Sweet Logo, a media company that specializes in complimentary-confection advertising, to promote A&E’s series Biography at the NCTA’s Cable 2001 convention to be held next month in Chi cago. Sweet Logo, based in New York, distributes individually wrapped mints at restaurants, hotels, beauty salons and day spas. The mints’ wrappers convey advertising messages.

Six months after acquiring AZ Marketing Services, 21 Century Marketing changed its name to 21 Century AZ Marketing to better reflect its breadth of resources and complete offerings. The agency is based in Farmingdale.

NEW JERSEY

Healthcare-communications network CommonHealth was chosen as the “Most Innovative” company in its industry by Med Ad News, an industry publication. CommonHealth, a WPP Group company, won the award at Med Ad News’ annual “Manny” Awards cocktail reception and dinner, held in New York on April 12. The Parsippany-based network was also honored as one of three finalists in the “Most Admired” award category, based on nominations submitted by rival healthcare-communications companies.

Parker & Partners Marketing Resources won two awards at the Astra Awards presentation sponsored by the Princeton-based New Jersey Communications, Advertising and Marketing Association. The event was held recently in Jamesburg. Parker & Partners and its creative-services division Inkworks Design Studio were honored with a gold award in the “Sales Promotion/Special Event Invitation” category for their Noyes D’Italia Invitation, which they created pro bono for the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville. The agency also won a gold award in the “Self-Promotion” category for its Big Fish Sales Kit. Parker & Partners, which was founded earlier this year, is based in Absecon.

The Business Marketing Association recently honored Ritta & Associates with three awards. The agency’s 2000 BMW exhibit at the New York Auto Show was recognized with an Impact Award as the best trade-show exhibit. R&A has designed BMW’s national auto-show graphics for many years, working with The Exhibit Co. of Long Island City, N.Y. The Englewood-based agency received a best-in-category Impact Award for the 2000 Accessory Catalog it created for BMW. R&A has produced the catalog for many years, among other work for the client. R&A also won a Judges Award for a promotional series the agency created for itself.

Gillespie, a unit of The Interpublic Group of Cos., won four first-place awards at the Philly Gold Competition and Awards Show held in April. The Princeton-based integrated-marketing agency won awards for its Justballs.com print campaign, a radio spot for YourHomeDirect.com, a comic-strip campaign for The Partnership for a Drug- Free America and annual-report photography for American Reinsurance. Five other Gillespie entries were finalists, including its interactive, animated corporate ID mark, a single-entry print ad for Justballs.com, the annual report for American Reinsurance and a multimedia campaign and four-color newspaper ad for Your HomeDirect.com.

PENNSYLVANIA

Parachute Creative, a Morrisville-based adver tising agency, won a Philly Gold Award in the “Sales Promotion” category. The winning entry was a custom sales kit created for toy manufacturer RoseArt Industries. Dan Fernandez handled art direction on the winning sales kit, Lisa Groppe did the design, and Tricia Scott wrote the copy.