The AICP Awards honours the best advertising of the year

Winners of the AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the American Commercial were presented at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

 Together with the AICP Next Awards, which were presented on June 4 at The Tishman Auditorium in New York, and the AICP Post Awards, which were presented on May 16 at Navy Pier in Chicago, they comprise the AICP Awards’ juried competitions.  Daniel Bergmann, Founder and President of Stink, was Chairperson of the AICP Show, while Jaime Robinson, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of JOAN Creative, was the AICP Next Awards Judging Chair. 

The AICP Show premiere at MoMA closed out AICP Week, a celebration of advertising in the motion image, which also included the AICP Next Awards and AICP Week Base Camp, which features educational seminars and panels. 

Each category of the AICP Show may have up to three winners, with the exception of Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial, and Advertising Excellence/Campaign, which each may have only one honouree, making those pieces “Best in Show.” Dream Crazier for Nike out of Wieden + Kennedy and directed by Kim Gehrig of Somesuch was honoured for Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial. The spot celebrates the achievements of women in sports by noting the challenges they face in acceptance, recognition and respect. It also won the first-ever AICP Community Award, decided from among the Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial Shortlist by the viewing public. 

The New York Times’ The Truth is Worth It campaign, comprising the spots Perseverance, Fearlessness and Rigor, was honoured for Advertising Excellence/Campaign. Directed by Martin + Lindsay of Furlined for Droga5, the campaign, shows the determined steps reporters must go through to break significant news stories for The New York Times. 

New to the AICP Show this year was the naming of a Marketer of the Year, and the honour went to Nike. The award recognises the Brand /Advertiser that has made a significant impact on the commercial industry by bringing together collaborative teams to create marketing communications in the motion image that not only exemplify an understanding of the creative craft but also serves as an inspiration to their creative partners. The AICP Show Curators determined the Marketer of the Year honouree based on one or more pieces from all category shortlists.

At the AICP Next Awards, presented on June 4 at the Tishman Auditorium in New York, the Most Next honour (Best in Show) went to Pernod Ricard’s The Time We Have Left from Leo Burnett Madrid. Accepting on behalf of the agency was Mark Tutssel, Executive Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett. The film, which shows people reacting to an online tool showing them how much time they actually have left to spend with their loved ones, sparked a public discourse about the role of technology in society and the need to focus on real-life relationships.  It was directed by Felix Fernandez de Castro of the Spanish production company Tesauro.

The winner of the Most Next honour directs a $5,000 grant from the AICP Foundation to an educational institution of their choosing. Leo Burnett Madrid has directed the grant to Reboot & Recover, a Florida-based non-profit with a mission to help people reduce their screen time by providing solutions for balanced living in a technology-driven world. 

The most honoured production companies in the AICP Awards (across the Show and Next) are Epoch, Furlined and MJZ, with 6 honours each, followed by O Positive, RadicalMedia and Somesuch, which each earned four honours. Biscuit Filmworks and SMUGGLER each received three honours. 

Among directors, Martin de Thurah of Epoch received six honours.  Spike Jonze of MJZ received five honours while Kim Gehrig of Somesuch and Dougal Wilson of Furlined each received four honours. Derek Cianfrance of RadicalMedia received three honours.