EP Nabs Prestigious Radio-Mercury Award
May 22, 2008
A commercial created by Erwin-Penland was named the best public service radio spot in the country last night at the Radio-Mercury Awards, the nation’s premier competition of radio creative.
The commercial is part of a comprehensive campaign to reduce overconsumption of alcohol within the Clemson University community. "Tara" is a 60-second spot in which a college student, who’s obviously overindulged, leaves an answering machine message for her more sober self. Making plans for the upcoming weekend, Tara breathlessly suggests a wide range of destructive behaviors that can result from drinking too much before an announcer delivers the closing line: “Control your drinking. Control your other you.”
Karen Walker and Jason Smith, who created the Clemson campaign for EP, received the honor at the Radio-Mercury Awards gala in Beverly Hills, Calif. With the award comes a $2,500 charitable contribution, which Walker and Smith will designate to a deserving organization.
Erwin-Penland bested some of the country’s top ad agencies in the public service category, including Mullen, Y&R, creative hot-shop Wongdoody and, ironically, EP parent company Hill Holliday. Only 15 commercials earned honors in all categories combined, including work from such esteemed ad agencies as Crispin Porter + Bogusky (Coke Zero), The Richards Group (Fruit of the Loom) and GSD&M Idea City (Norwegian Cruise Lines).
“To be named the best in the country is an unbelievable honor,” said EP Executive Creative Director Andy Mendelsohn. “We’ve won National ADDY Awards in the past, where the creative merits of campaigns are judged independent of one another. But to have your work be deemed superior to other great campaigns from some of the top agencies in the business, that says a lot about the creative caliber of Erwin-Penland.”
Presented annually since 1992 by the Radio Creative Fund, a non-profit organization funded by the radio industry, the Radio-Mercury Awards encourage, recognize and reward excellence in radio creative. For a list of this year’s winners, including links to all the winning spots, visit the Radio-Mercury Awards website at www.radiomercuryawards.com.
EProgress
The Winter 2008 edition highlights EP’s acquisition of all local retail advertising for Verizon Wireless, new broadcast work for Firehouse Subs, Julie Quaranta and the EP Direct service offering, Splatthemat.com and the huge success of EP’s work on “How Sweet the Sound Memphis” for Verizon Wireless.