On February 25, the BYU Adlab conquered the Utah ADDYS. For those of you who don’t know, according to the ADDY website “The ADDY® Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes and entrants of all levels from anywhere in the world.” This was the Utah ADDYS, and we submitted enough material to sweep the student category. That’s right, no other school was represented at the Utah ADDYS because we won it all. I don’t want to brag but is it considered bragging if it is the truth.
The award ceremony started with a catered social. Considering the demographics at the social, I don’t think there have ever been so many sodas given out at an open bar. I can just imagine the people in charge of the ADDYs looking at the guest list and thinking to themselves, “huh, 40% of the people coming are going to be BYU students and faculty… looks like we wasted all that open bar money.” So, consider this a belated apology to the bartenders that spent most of the night opening Sprite cans instead of mixing drinks.
The food was a little above my pay grade. I ate, and almost threw up, my first crab cake. The highlight of the buffet was either the nachos or a desert item that looked like a little ice cream cone but was really victory flavored frosting wrapped in a chocolate cone. I have heard, from those who attended and had a more refined palette, that the catering was actually very good.
Don't look into his eyes or you will be under his spell.
So, we got to act all important for a night. We got all dressed up and Jeff called me out when I showed up in a cardigan so I had to call my roommate to bring me my tickets and a jacket. As is the case with all more-than-casual events; the girls got all dolled up, Chandy rocked the bow ties, Nic dressed like a jazz band trumpeter, and Curtis combed his mustache. The only thing missing was Jeff’s BYU golf shirt. What I’m trying to say is this was an awesome opportunity to see the glitz and glam of the business. Sometimes advertising seems way too draining, the mental equivalent of running the Iditarod, and it was nice to see our work being appreciated and enjoy it for once as more than just a job.
The highlight of the night was when Doritos Guardian (Nathan Wigglesworth, Patrick Koelling, Devin LuBean, and Brad Hall) won the student Best in Show, an award they invented just to recognize how amazing Guardian was. Nathan, Devin, and Brad were there to accept the award. The three went up to the stage and the MC directed Nathan to the podium giving Nathan’s accent the opportunity to make the lab the most interesting agency in Utah. Nathan, Johnny on the spot, dodged the awkward, “I would like to thank…” and went right to the important issues giving a shout out to the bird that flew out the window and never returned during their shoot. We wish you the best, Goshawk, wherever you are.
Jeff, in true form, wasn’t satisfied with us sweeping the student category. He told us we should have won everything. He probably wanted us to win the student ADDYs, the normal ADDYs, and a winner takes all blackjack game that would have awarded the Adlab all ADDY awards until the year 2020. Jeff is the last person I would take to Vegas. I could be on tilt and be up thousands of dollars and ready to go home and Jeff would tell me, “Why are you settling on $15,000. You could have $30,000.” Then I would keep gambling until I lost everything and Jeff would tell me I lost it all because I didn’t try hard enough. That is if I were a gambling man. Which I’m not. Thanks for pushing us Jeff. I digress.
Who knew a bearded kid could be so well received.
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