AICP Awards Announces 2016 Winners
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 Tishman Auditorium at the New School, and the AICP Week Base Camp. Two thousand members of the advertising, marketing and production industries attended the debut of the AICP Show, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. Serving as chairperson of this year’s show was Jules Daly, President of RSA Films. 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 AICP Show and AICP Next Awards archive – are available for viewing here. Each year, the honoured work becomes a part of the archives of the Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art. The collection now numbers over 1,800 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, which may have only one honouree, making that piece “Best in Show.” This year’s honour went to AT&T’s “Close To Home,” out of BBDO New York and directed by Fredric Planchon of Anonymous Content. The ad highlights the dangers of driving while using smartphones to text, talk, post and search.
At the AICP Next Awards, the Most Next honour (Best in Show) went to The New York Times virtual reality piece “The Displaced.” The experience gives users a birds-eye view of what is like to be a refugee of a war-torn country. It was directed by Imraan Ismail and Ben C. Solomon, and produced by VRSE.works for The New York Times. The winner of the Most Next honour directs a $5,000 grant from the AICP Foundation to an educational institution of their choosing. This year’s grant went to Ashoka (ashoka.com), an incubator for social entrepreneurs who are using their companies as a platform for good.
The most honoured production companies in the AICP Awards are RSA Films and Smuggler, with four wins each. Garnering three honours each are: Anonymous Content, Biscuit FIlmworks, Bob Industries, MJZ, RESET Content, and Stink USA.
Among directors, John Hillcoat of Stink USA and Trish Sie and Damian Kulash of Bob Industries each earned three honours. Coming in with two honours are: Lance Acord of Park Pictures; Estaban Crespo of Garlic TV; Martin de Thurah of Epoch Films; Limbert Fabian of Moonbot Studios; Andrew Jane of Rival School Pictures; Danielle Levitt of Persuade Content, Sophie Mueller of Wondros; Terence Neale of RSA Films; Wally Pfister of RESET Content; Fredric Planchon of Anonymous Content; and Steve Rogers of Biscuit Filmworks.
On the agency front, various offices of Wieden+Kennedy topped the list with six honours, followed by Deutsch and R/GA with five honours each. Droga5 received four honours, followed by BBDO, Leo Burnett, McCann, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, and Tutkovbudkov, who all received three honours.
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.
