Oink Ink Radio has announced that Toronto copywriter Joe O’Neill has taken First Place in this year’s Dead Radio Contest and has become its first-ever repeat winner. O'Neill is a Senior Copywriter at Manifest Communications in Toronto, Canada. His first win was in 2013, when he took home the grand prize for the Canadian Hearing Society with his script called “Rock & Roll Casualty.”
“Every year, we receive hundreds of entries from all over the world, so you can understand how surprised I was to see Joe’s name again,” says Dan Price, Partner of Oink Ink. “We were thrilled to have him back.”
O’Neill’s winning script this time around, “I Couldn’t Stop Vomiting” was written for Covenant House and was selected from hundreds of entries from advertising copywriters from across the U.S. and beyond. The Covenant House is Canada’s largest homeless youth agency. Its mission is to serve suffering children of the street, and protect and safeguard all children…with absolute respect and unconditional love.
O’Neill’s script features a young girl recounting the abuse she endured: “I still remember the first time he spoke to me. The first time he said I was pretty.” Her story gradually escalates to “The first time he burned me with a cigarette. The first time I couldn’t stop vomiting.” And finally, she hauntingly recalls when "he asked about my little sister."
Oink Ink’s Dead Radio Contest is in its 17th year. The worldwide competition is the first of its kind, and is designed to give a second chance to great radio scripts that clients deemed too risky, too zany—or simply the wrong fit at the time. Oink Ink solicits submissions from writers around the world, and a panel of industry professionals, judges the top scripts. The grand prize winner is treated to an expense-paid trip to Oink Ink’s New York City studios, where they enjoy a 2-night hotel stay and the experience of participating in the full production of their winning script.
Several previous winners have seen clients ultimately change their minds about the rejected scripts upon hearing the produced spot—and in some cases, actually deciding to air it. In fact, more than a handful of Dead Radio winners have gone on to earn recognition at the Radio Mercury Awards and Cannes, among other traditional, high profile advertising shows.
“What the contest offers, in one word, is hope. Hope is invaluable.” Says O’Neill. “When you come up with a great radio spot idea, you immediately start dreaming of producing it. You imagine what great talent and direction will bring to it. You start imagining listening to it, impressing people with it, reaching people with it on the radio. You imagine it living!”
The spot features New York-based actress Salena Qureshi and Lawton Paseka handles the announcer duties.
Oink Ink also recognizes Alf Zapata of The Richards Group/Dallas as the silver winner for his spot, "Mad Libs" for DiGiorno. Michael Schillig from PP&K/Tampa took home the bronze award for his script, "Cruelest Show on Earth" for Big Cat Rescue.
To hear the winning commercial, and for more information about Oink Ink’s Dead Radio contest, visit: here.
To hear O’Neill’s previous win, “Rock & Roll Casualty” click here.
About OINK INK
Oink Ink is an award-winning, creative agency founded by veteran managing director and president Dan Price and his brother, executive creative director Jim Price. Oink Ink writes, produces, directs and manages radio and television advertising for ad agencies, client-direct accounts, cable network promos and special projects. Headquartered in New York, Oink Ink has been providing high-end creative for over 25 years, for such notable clients as Google, AT&T, CBS Television, Coors Light, Ford, IBM, Southwest Airlines and Staples and ad agency leaders Goodby, BBDO, Crispin Porter, Ogilvy, JWT, and many more. http://www.oinkcreative.com/
