September 2024

Insights from Steve Pacheco

President & CEO, American Advertising Federation

The American Advertising Awards: North America’s Largest Creative Competition

Time to start thinking about the American Advertising Awards Competition…

 The American Advertising Awards is the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, attracting more than 25,000 entries each year. The mission of the American Advertising Awards is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising.

Check out the all-new website that showcases all the winners from last year.

Conducted annually by the AAF, the local tier of the American Advertising Awards is the first of a three-tier, national competition. Concurrently, across the country, local entrants vie to receive an ADDY Award—recognition as the very best in their markets.

At the second tier, local ADDY Award winners compete against winners from other local clubs in one of 15 district competitions. District ADDY Award winners are then forwarded to the third tier, the national stage of the American Advertising Awards. Entry in your local competition is the first step toward winning a national ADDY Award.

Entering the American Advertising Awards supports the entire advertising industry, because the AAF and its local and district chapters use the proceeds to enhance advertising through programs such as public service, internships, advocacy groups, advertising education, and consumer awareness.

Selection of the most creative entry in each category is affected by a scoring process in which a panel of judges evaluates all creative dimensions of every entry. A Gold ADDY Award is recognition of the highest level of creative excellence and is judged to be superior to all other entries in the category. Entries that are also considered outstanding and worthy of recognition receive a Silver ADDY Award.

Last year was an amazing year for the American Advertising Awards (check out the all-new winner's gallery), selected from more than 25,000 entries, "Cancel the World Cup," a technology-driven effort designed to raise awareness of the importance of visiting a cardiologist to help prevent heart disease, was named Best of Show  (see the press release). The campaign was created by Texas-based agency BeautifulBeast on behalf of Fundación Cardiológica Argentina (Argentinian Heart Foundation).

In all, 65 Gold ADDYs were awarded, along with four Special Judges Awards and one Mosaic Award for multicultural advertising. ADDYs were also presented in the student portion of the competition. Winners were announced during AAF’s ADMERICA National Conference at a Gala ceremony held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, May 30-June 2nd. The event was hosted by award-winning comedian and actress Loni Love and attended by 500 people from across the advertising, marketing, media, and tech communities.

Want to be among the elite list of winners this year? You must first enter! For more questions, please email [email protected].