Barely good mediocrity
AY&R, Publicis, Wirz, and RufLanz were in the spotlight at the 2002 ADC
AY&R, Publicis, Wirz and RufLanz were showered with gold at the ADC 2002By Luca Aloisi Despite a slight decline in entries, nine works were awarded gold, just like last year, thanks to the cube contingent. In general, it was noted that creativity unfortunately did not behave anti-cyclically to the economy. Among the top disciplines, only the overall campaign came away empty-handed. All in all, a good year.
Andreas Prokesch welcomed the jury members in his usual mischievous manner, as if he wanted to gently instruct all the gold jurors that this was unlikely to be a year in which the barometer for creative advertising would be recalibrated. To get the men's panel in the mood, ADC Chairman Prokesch, who was also acting as jury director for the last time, read out the rules for winners and losers - a list of guiding principles that he had borrowed from the EHC Frauenfeld Piccolo team's association booklet. There, his nine-year-old son had already learned that a winner blames luck for his victory, even if it is not always luck; while a loser describes his loss as bad luck, even if it is not bad luck. Prokesch took the wind out of the sails of potential complainers by saying that winners and losers refer to the type and that the gold judging team is made up exclusively of winners.
The glorious two defended their first places
The ADC Board responded to the "over-regulation" that was frequently criticized last year by making significant changes to the judging process: on the one hand, this year those whose ADC award was more than three years old could once again sit on the jury, and on the other hand, the jury groups went from work to work again according to the old custom. This was intended to minimize the anonymous ticking of boxes in the first round of voting, which often led to questionable judgments.
Nevertheless, it was not possible to prevent works that had won several international awards from being overlooked in the first round at ADC Switzerland, noted the visibly irritated Chairman Daniel Matter. ADC Chairman Prokesch tried to correct the picture with the somewhat obsolete explanation that every jury comes to slightly different conclusions.
This was not the only point on which the panel struggled. More than the works to be judged themselves, the definition problems of the gold jury often gave rise to discussion. Because some of the advertisements that appeared in the specialist advertising category were also placed in the general press, the jury split into two camps, debating where to look for the special interest groups and how to define them.
In general, the ADC management stated that almost a third of all entries were submitted in the incorrect categories. "Perhaps we should introduce a seminar," joked Andreas Prokesch. Nevertheless, the creative elite went to great lengths to respect the decisions of the category juries and did not dismiss any silver work.
Instead, it applied the splitting rule in favor of the entrants, which at least helped the rooster from Advico Young & Rubicam's (AY&R) Radio DRS commercial series to win gold. The jury generously saw the fact that the concept idea was somewhat exhausted as the lesser evil. Although the other AY&R client, the Kuoni Group, was denied the golden hat-trick in the overall campaign category - it "only" won silver - the Gockhausen agency can count itself lucky with gold cubes in three supreme disciplines, as it landed in second place with 56 points.
This year, it ceded first place to Publicis, which took the honors in 2001. Despite being one gold cube behind AY&R, Jean Etienne Aebi's Publicis team, which has the winner of the season in the ZVV campaign, managed to swing onto the top step of the podium with enough silver and bronze. The two top agencies have not been displaced from the top spot for three years.
Upscale mediocrity, but few blockbusters
Markus Ruf and Danielle Lanz returned with verve - for the first time in a new agency constellation; their productive creative agency came in fourth place behind Wirz Werbung. Thanks to ground-breaking work, Wirz - with a Tibet spot that pioneeringly dispenses with oppressive implementations and moralizing, and the successful continuation of the Tibits campaign - and RufLanz - which advertises for the fashion house Big in a communications outfit that is unusual for the industry - were the other two golden hamsters.
In the 15 categories (2001: 20, including the Press Prize, which was not awarded this year), 1140 (1159) works were judged. Nine were awarded gold, 39 (56) silver and 184 (220) bronze diplomas. There was a high level of mediocrity on show, which is why even good works had a difficult time in various categories. There were fewer absolute highlights than ever before.
In the ailing market situation, loud statements and provocation have given way to proven concepts and majority-coded implementations. The winning motto for many advertising platforms that can be used in the long term was to be offputting, but with calculation. The performances of the otherwise courageous publishing industry were disappointing. In the medal table this year, the media companies were conspicuous only by their absence.
ADC 2002: The gold winners
Andreas Prokesch welcomed the jury members in his usual mischievous manner, as if he wanted to gently instruct all the gold jurors that this was unlikely to be a year in which the barometer for creative advertising would be recalibrated. To get the men's panel in the mood, ADC Chairman Prokesch, who was also acting as jury director for the last time, read out the rules for winners and losers - a list of guiding principles that he had borrowed from the EHC Frauenfeld Piccolo team's association booklet. There, his nine-year-old son had already learned that a winner blames luck for his victory, even if it is not always luck; while a loser describes his loss as bad luck, even if it is not bad luck. Prokesch took the wind out of the sails of potential complainers by saying that winners and losers refer to the type and that the gold judging team is made up exclusively of winners.
The glorious two defended their first places
The ADC Board responded to the "over-regulation" that was frequently criticized last year by making significant changes to the judging process: on the one hand, this year those whose ADC award was more than three years old could once again sit on the jury, and on the other hand, the jury groups went from work to work again according to the old custom. This was intended to minimize the anonymous ticking of boxes in the first round of voting, which often led to questionable judgments.
Nevertheless, it was not possible to prevent works that had won several international awards from being overlooked in the first round at ADC Switzerland, noted the visibly irritated Chairman Daniel Matter. ADC Chairman Prokesch tried to correct the picture with the somewhat obsolete explanation that every jury comes to slightly different conclusions.
This was not the only point on which the panel struggled. More than the works to be judged themselves, the definition problems of the gold jury often gave rise to discussion. Because some of the advertisements that appeared in the specialist advertising category were also placed in the general press, the jury split into two camps, debating where to look for the special interest groups and how to define them.
In general, the ADC management stated that almost a third of all entries were submitted in the incorrect categories. "Perhaps we should introduce a seminar," joked Andreas Prokesch. Nevertheless, the creative elite went to great lengths to respect the decisions of the category juries and did not dismiss any silver work.
Instead, it applied the splitting rule in favor of the entrants, which at least helped the rooster from Advico Young & Rubicam's (AY&R) Radio DRS commercial series to win gold. The jury generously saw the fact that the concept idea was somewhat exhausted as the lesser evil. Although the other AY&R client, the Kuoni Group, was denied the golden hat-trick in the overall campaign category - it "only" won silver - the Gockhausen agency can count itself lucky with gold cubes in three supreme disciplines, as it landed in second place with 56 points.
This year, it ceded first place to Publicis, which took the honors in 2001. Despite being one gold cube behind AY&R, Jean Etienne Aebi's Publicis team, which has the winner of the season in the ZVV campaign, managed to swing onto the top step of the podium with enough silver and bronze. The two top agencies have not been displaced from the top spot for three years.
Upscale mediocrity, but few blockbusters
Markus Ruf and Danielle Lanz returned with verve - for the first time in a new agency constellation; their productive creative agency came in fourth place behind Wirz Werbung. Thanks to ground-breaking work, Wirz - with a Tibet spot that pioneeringly dispenses with oppressive implementations and moralizing, and the successful continuation of the Tibits campaign - and RufLanz - which advertises for the fashion house Big in a communications outfit that is unusual for the industry - were the other two golden hamsters.
In the 15 categories (2001: 20, including the Press Prize, which was not awarded this year), 1140 (1159) works were judged. Nine were awarded gold, 39 (56) silver and 184 (220) bronze diplomas. There was a high level of mediocrity on show, which is why even good works had a difficult time in various categories. There were fewer absolute highlights than ever before.
In the ailing market situation, loud statements and provocation have given way to proven concepts and majority-coded implementations. The winning motto for many advertising platforms that can be used in the long term was to be offputting, but with calculation. The performances of the otherwise courageous publishing industry were disappointing. In the medal table this year, the media companies were conspicuous only by their absence.
ADC 2002: The gold winners
Audience ads: Publicis with the "One ticket for everything" campaign for the Zurich Transport Association (ZVV).
Public advertisements (individual motifs): AY&R with "Alpenarena Monsterpipe" for Flims Laax Falera.
Specialist advertisement: AY&R with "Downhill Biking" for Flims Laax Falera.
Outdoor advertising: RufLanz with "Warten auf die Girls" for Big and Wirz with "Pouletschenkel" for Tibits.
Advertising film: AY&R with "Güggel" for Swiss Radio DRS.
Editorials and book design: Integral Lars Müller with the "Freitag" book.
Illustration: Publicis with its own Christmas mailing "Memory".
Public Service: Wirz with the TV commercial "Keep Tibet Alive" for the Swiss Tibetan community.
