June 28, 2003 – The Paint Depot did it again Saturday night, taking home the Ad Club of the Virgin Islands Best of Show award for the second straight year — this time for its "Lottery Losers" print advertising.
The three other top awards for 2003 — the Donald Plantz Awards of Excellence in different media — went to Austin Advertising for print, for its Humane Society ad, "Play on the Power of One" slogan for FirstBank; to Austin again for radio, for its KFC "Caesar Twister" spot; and to Film VI.net for television, for its "Island Reliability" spot for AT&T.
Three special Judges Awards also were presented — to MLB Creative for its "Worldwide Emergency" brochures, to St. Croix Explorer for DMButler.com, and to The Paint Depot for its print ad "Who Ya Gonna Call."
In addition, a total of 84 gold and silver awards were handed out at the Ad Club's 22nd annual ADVI Awards gala, held at Coral World on St. Thomas. The awards recognize excellence within the V.I. advertising community.
The selection of winners is always by a panel of off-island advertising professionals. This year's judging, which took place three weeks ago, was by Brenda Edwards, president of Advisors Advertising Inc. of Ocala, Florida; Wilfredo Marquez Umpierre, creative director of Guasp & Partners Communications of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico; and Sean Brunson, senior art director of Fry Hammond Bar Advertising of Orlando, Florida.
This year's competition attracted more than 180 entries from ad agencies and individual designers, copywriters, producers and photographers from St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John. All were displayed at Coral World's Caribbean Reef Encounter during a cocktail reception prior to the awards ceremony hosted by Darr Conradson and Anita Davis.
The judging panel awarded a total of 24 gold awards. Those receiving two or more of them were Austin Advertising, MLB Creative, The Paint Depot, Infinity + 1 Design, Bellows International, Diane Butler, St. Croix Explorer, Film VI.net and Gary Felton Photography.
According to an Ad Club release, all three judges had positive things to say about the quality of creativity within the V.I. advertising community.
Edwards, a two-term past governor of the American Advertising Federation's Fourth District, which encompasses Florida and the Caribbean, stated that the work had "high-quality pieces and excellent visuals." And she found the 2003 ADVI entries to have "the most original music scores heard in one show."
Brunson commented: "A pleasant surprise, such a nice body of work."
Marquez pronounced the entries overall "really good pieces of design and artwork. Great work for a small island."
For the complete list of ADVI 2003 winners, click here.
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