The Advertising Women of New York (AWNY) presented its 8th annual Good, Bad, Ugly (GBU) Awards on April 5 at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York. The show celebrates advertisers and agencies that portray women in a positive light with Good Award, while admonishing ads that are offensive and/or insulting to women with Bad and Ugly Awards.
L’Oreal and the Curves fitness and lifestyle chain were each honored with the Grand Good Award. L’Oreal was honored for a spot called “Beyoncé,” out of McCann Erickson, New York, and directed by Matthew Rolston of bicoastal Venus Productions. Curves was singled out for “Now I Fit” out of Publicis, Dallas, and directed by Leslie Dektor of Dektor Film, Hollywood.
A “They Get It Award” went to Dove’s “Real Beauty” integrated campaign out of Ogilvy & Mather, New York. The campaign features spots such as “Anthem,” from director Jeff Preiss of bicoastal Epoch Films, which shows hordes of women in blond wigs tossing the hair pieces aside in favor of their real tresses.
The Grand Ugly for TV went to the Troeg Beer spot “Burp,” which features a bikini-clad model suggestively caressing a bottle of Troeg’s beer, and burping while listing the types of beer offered by the brewer. A second Troeg spot, “Troegenator,” was given an Ugly Award. Rudy Banny directed the ads for the Neiman Group, Harrisburg, Penn., and the shop’s in-house production arm, Falling Olive Productions. The ads were actually entered by the agency in the hopes that they would receive a bad or ugly honor, thus creating publicity for the brand.
THE GOOD
Lowe, New York, scored two Good Awards: one for Johnson & Johnson’s “Same Gift,” directed by Tony Kaye of bicoastal Supply & Demand, and one for the Light of Life Foundation’s “Not What You Think,” directed by Frank W. Ockenfels 3 of Great Guns, Los Angeles. L’Oreal’s “Andie,” also directed by Rolston for McCann Erickson, was honored with a Good Award.
The Girls Scouts of America ad “See The World,” directed by Graham Henman of bicoastal HKM Productions via The Kaplan Thaler Group, New York received a Good Award, as did a Whirlpool/Habitat for Humanity spot out of Publicis, New York.
THE BAD & THE UGLY
“Ref,” for Budweiser out of DDB Chicago scored an Ugly Award. Greg Popp, group executive producer at DDB along with former group creative head John Immesoete directed the spot, which was produced via bicoastal/international Partizan. (Immesoete is now a director with Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif.) Bud Light’s “Fantasy,” also out of DDB, scored an Ugly “honor.” David Kellogg of bicoastal Anonymous Content helmed the spot.
Visa’s “Super Heroes,” directed by Acne of bicoastal RSA USA out of BBDO New York scored a Bad Award, as did a Twix spot out of Nitro, New York.
