AICP Honors The Best Commercials Of The Year

NEW YORK, June 12, 2014 – The AICP Show: The Art & Technique of the American Commercial premiered tonight at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, closing out AICP Week, a celebration of advertising in the motion image, which also included the debut of the AICP Next Awards at the NYU Skirball Center, and the AICP Directors Lectures Series at MoMA. Two thousand members of the advertising, marketing and production industries attended the debut of the AICP Show. Serving as chairman of this year’s Show was Michael Sagol, Managing Director/Executive Producer of Caviar. Following its premiere at MoMA, the Show will tour museums and cultural institutions around the country and abroad.  This year’s winners – along with the entire Show archive – are available for viewing at the newly redesigned www.aicpawards.com.  Each year, the honored work becomes a part of the archives of the Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art. The collection now numbers over 1,600 pieces of advertising in the motion image.

Each category of the Show may have up to three winners, with the exception of Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial and Advertising Excellence/Campaign, which may have only one honoree each, making those pieces “Best in Show.”  A campaign for Old Spice – comprising the ads “Constant Shower,” “Watermelon” and “Architect,” all directed by Steve Rogers, and produced by Biscuit Filmworks and Revolver for Wieden+Kennedy – was honored in Advertising Excellence/Campaign. “The Epic Split” for Volvo Trucks out of Forsman & Bodenfors and directed by Andreas Nilsson of Folke Film, was honored for Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial. A Curator’s Recognition was given to Intel’s “Look Inside: Mick Ebeling,” via Venables Bell & Partners, and directed by Mick Ebeling and Lucy Walker of The Ebeling Group by a unanimous vote of the AICP Show Curatorial Committee.  In the AICP Next Awards, the Most Next honor (Best in Show) went to “A Boy & His Atom” for IBM out of Ogilvy. The winner of the Most Next honor directs a $5,000 grant from the AICP Foundation to an educational institution of their choosing. The winner of the Most Next honor directs a $5,000 grant from the AICP Foundation to an educational institution of their choosing. The grant was directed to P-TECH (Pathways to Technology) High School in Brooklyn.

The most honored production company in the AICP was MJZ, with nine honors, followed by Folke Film with six. Biscuit Filmworks, Furlined, and Park Pictures each received four honors; Epoch Films and Smuggler each received three honors. Among directors, Andreas Nilsson of Folke Films had the most honors, with six. Ted Pauly of Furlined was behind four honored pieces in the Show, while Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ and Martin De Thurah of Epoch Films each received three. On the agency front, Wieden+Kennedy topped the list with 14 honors, followed by BBDO New York with eight; Forsman & Bodenfors with six; Droga5 with five, and Barton F. Graf 9000 with four.
The Art & Technique of the American Commercial has a bifurcated judging system, which begins with a series of judging panels featuring over 400 judges from across the country and around the world, with experts in various fields judging work across the 22 categories. The process culminates in the meeting of the Curatorial Committee, which is the final arbiter in the disposition of the Show, confirming eligibility and appropriateness to category. The AICP Next Awards are judged by a separate panel.

The AICP Show reel features custom-designed graphics by The Mill, with an original score by HUM Music. The Show Sponsor piece was created by The Mission with music by Mophonics Music & Sound.

On display during the gala reception for the AICP Show at MoMA was a video projection on the wall of the Sculpture Garden. The installation was created by Trollbäck + Company, with projection by longtime AICP collaborator and sponsor McCann Systems.

Sponsors help make all of the events during AICP Week possible. AICP’s Partners, who support all AICP events throughout the year, are: CAPS, Deluxe, Prosight, Shutterstock, and Universal Studios. Its Supporting Partners are: The Film Office of the Hawaiian Islands and Sony Pictures Studios.  The Show Corporate Leader is the Directors Guild of America (DGA). The Show Corporate Benefactors are: Advertising Age, Aspen Travel, AwardCore, Creativity, Extreme Reach|SourceEcreative, Hello World Communications, International Digital Centre, Inc., Istros Media Corporation, The London NYC and The London West Hollywood, McCann Systems, The Mill, Nice Shoes, and SHOOTMagazine/SHOOTonline. The Show Corporate Patrons are: AdSpur, Arenson Prop Center; COLOR: An Audio Production Company; Entertainment Partners; Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz; Henryboy, HUM Music, The Mission; Mophonics Music & Sound; QUIETMAN; Spot Welders, and VCU Brandcenter.

The AICP Next Awards Corporate Benefactors are: McCann Systems and Trollback+Company.

For more information about the AICP Show or AICP Next Awards, please visit aicpawards.com.