Students in BFA Advertising faculty member Frank Anselmo’s Unconventional Advertising class once again dominated the One Show Young Ones Competition this year. The One Show is the world’s most prestigious awards show recognizing the best creative work in advertising, interactive, design and branded entertainment. The Young Ones Awards Ceremony was held on May 10 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City, and SVA students won more prestigious One Show Pencils than any advertising school in the world. The class that’s globally recognized as “The Most Awarded Ad Class in History” took home 18 Pencils. Last month, the class also picked up five statues at the prestigious International ANDY Awards. I caught up with Anselmo to talk about the class’ award-winning ads.
Can you tell us about the ads that were nominated for the The One Show?
One of my favorite ideas is the Lego “Hand-Bag” for which we won the Gold Pencil (Students: Junho Lee, Hyun Chul Choi, Jungho Hwang and Joon Ho Ahn). We worked very hard and tried numerous treatments before finally agreeing on this executional treatment. My personal favorite idea is one that did not even place as a finalist called “The Walk of Pain” (Students: Stephen Kingslow, Sal Romano). It’s an idea that took more of a chance than any of the work I saw in the entire show. I’m shocked the judges missed this brilliant idea.
And the ANDY winners?
At
the Andy Awards, the show that awards the least amount of student
awards of any show in the world, of only 10 statues awarded globally,
our students took home four–marking the first time in history that one
class has won 40% of the entire show. The
NASCAR “Speedvertising” motion-activated billboard (Students: Jabari Cook, Taejun Park) is one of the most brilliant unconventional forms of advertising I’ve ever seen (watch below).
What according to you helped BFA Advertising students to have an edge at both these Awards?
It’s
the opposite. Everyone else has the edge over us. The average student
in my program is 20-years-old and English is a second language. Many
students I’ve met all over the world are closer to their 30s. That’s a
lot more life experience which is an advantage in advertising. When I
see 20-year-olds, most with a different first language, reach these
feats, it’s impressive on a whole other level.
Are your students working towards some other Award-related projects currently?
We
never work on anything just for awards. Every project in the class is
for their portfolio. Quite often if I don’t like the briefs for award
shows, we don’t work on them at all. A shiny award without a great
portfolio won’t land students jobs at the great shops.
To download a new app featuring the work of graduating BFA Advertising and BFA Design students, click here. Watch a short video preview of the app below: