College Rush
By Robert Goldrich
The American Advertising Federation (AAF) is known on several prime fronts–for one, its ADDY Awards competition which earlier this month bestowed its national best-of-show honor on Microsoft Xbox 360’s “Jump Rope” directed by Frank Budgen of Gorgeous, London, and bicoastal Anonymous Content for McCann Erickson, San Francisco, and 72 and Sunny, El Segundo, Calif. The spot then made AAF history as the first best-of-show winner to garner the ADDY Mosaic Award for multicultural advertising.
The AAF also enjoys high-profile status for its national network of 200 ad clubs located in communities across the U.S. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AAF trade association represents some 50,000 advertising industry professionals.
But somewhat lost in the shadows are two other AAF attributes–one being another awards competition, the other residing in a lesser known network of artisans that the organization maintains.
The latter is embodied in the AAF’s 215 college chapters. Through this college group, the AAF provides 6,500 advertising students with real-world case studies and recruitment connections.
The latest case study was for Postal Vault, a postal security company, which challenged those 6,500 students on 215 campuses to develop a creatively engaging campaign for its identity theft prevention product line. The best entries gained recognition at the AAF’s 2006 National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC).
For several months, students worked in teams conducted primary research to study Postal Vault’s target market, including its media habits, and the client’s competition. Getty Images provided use of images for the teams, and its materials were featured in the winning campaign.
Judges from Postal Vault and leading advertising companies assessed the field, declaring the winning entry as that from a team at the University of Virginia. Webster University, the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) and the Art Center Design College (Albuquerque) took second, third and fourth place, respectively.
The University of Virginia won for its “The Think Campaign.” The campaign mission was to motivate consumers to think about their mailboxes and the need to secure mail with a Postal Vault product. Utilizing traditional, nontraditional and business-to-business marketing tactics, the University of Virginia team presented an emotional appeal to prospective consumers with the tagline, “Postal Vault. Now You’ve Thought of Everything.”
Making the presentation to NSAC judges for the University of Virginia were team members Jennie Averbrook, Zoe Chen, Erin Fromherz, Karen Land and Cathy Sposato. Faculty advisor is Jack Lindgren.
The NSAC judges included Postal Vault Systems’ VP of sales and marketing Chuck Hosier, Adweek publisher Wright Ferguson Jr., BBDO West associate creative director Neil Levy, and The D-Group’s president/owner Danny G. Smith.
The first place team received $3,500; second place prize was $2,500, third place, $2,000, and fourth place, $1,000.
The NSAC is regarded as a leading student advertising competition. It has been a proving ground for some 80,000 student participants over the years. Just as, if not more importantly, the NSAC is a showcase which ad industry recruiters scrutinize for new talent. The bottom line is that through the NSAC, the AAF mentors and opens up career doors for up-and-coming artisans.
SAG-AFTRA Calls For A Strike Against “League of Legends”
"League of Legends" is caught in the middle of a dispute between Hollywood's actors union and an audio company that provides voiceover services for the blockbuster online multiplayer game.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called a strike against "League of Legends" on Tuesday, arguing that Formosa Interactive attempted to get around the ongoing video game strike by hiring non-union actors to work on an unrelated title.
Formosa tried to "cancel" the unnamed video game, which was covered by the strike, shortly after the start of the work stoppage, SAG-AFTRA said. The union said when Formosa learned it could not cancel the game, the company "secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for 'non-union' talent only." In response, the union's interactive negotiating committee voted unanimously to file an unfair labor practice charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board and to call a strike against "League of Legends" as part of that charge.
"League of Legends" is one of Formosa's most well-known projects. The company provides voiceover services for the game, according to SAG-AFTRA.
SAG-AFTRA has accused Formosa of interfering with protections that allow performers to form or join a union and prevent those performers from being discriminated against — a move the union called "egregious violations of core tenets of labor law."
Formosa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "League of Legends" developer Riot Games said that the company "has nothing to do" with the union's complaint.
"We want to be clear: Since becoming a union project five years ago, 'League of Legends' has only asked Formosa to engage with union... Read More