Award Criteria

Silver Medal recipients are selected by a panel of judges from each local club. Judges use the following criteria when making their selections:


Eligibility Requirements

Contribution to His/Her Company

The recipient must have achieved success in one of the following areas of work: advertising agency, advertiser, media or advertising service. 


Creative Ability

The recipient must have shown a consistent, high degree of original thinking in their field.


Contributions to the General Advancement of Advertising

The recipient must have worked to increase the stature and raise the standards of the advertising profession.


Contributions to the Community

The recipient should be someone who has been active in civic, religious, or other groups dedicated to human or social welfare.


Service to the American Advertising Federation

The honoree should have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the local American Advertising Federation chapter. Service to the corresponding AAF District and AAF National further solidifies the depth of service.


Judging Guidelines

While local AAF Clubs have some flexibility in their judging and should refer to their by-laws and/or operating policies and procedures, AAF asks the following guidelines be included in the selection process:

  • Eligibility should rely on the Criteria required by AAF national and any additional considerations of the local chapter.
  • All nominations should be submitted in writing/electronically.
  • All nominations should remain confidential. Nominations can be held over for one year. Following two years of consideration a new nomination should be submitted.
  • Honorees should be selected by a committee of no less than 3-5 esteemed advertising professionals belonging to the American Advertising Federation.
  • Committee members should not be among the nominees but can include previous Silver Medal recipients.
  • The local clubs may determine to use local or out-of-area committee members.
  • The honoree must be a member in good standing of the community and industry. The selection committee should perform its due diligence to ensure such prior to any public announcement.

Additional Notes:
The official name of the award is the AAF Silver Medal. Other monikers should not be associated with the name of the medal.