Recent Alum Wins Gold ADDY Award

Alumnus Jacob Guess (BFA ’19) was recently awarded a Student Gold Award at the American Advertising (“ADDY”) Awards 2020 National Show competition for his campaign, “The End.” The American Advertising Awards is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition.

Jacob’s project, “The End,” was an awareness and activism campaign designed to encourage students to submit postcards supporting the closing of gun legislation loopholes. The design work was completed as part of his graphic design community engagement thesis exhibition. “The End” won “Best of Show” at the Charlotte chapter competition of the American Advertising Awards, which judges professional and student entries from across the city region. From there it advanced through the district and then national judging.

The mission of the American Advertising Awards is “to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising.” This year, 30,421 entries were submitted in 130 local tier competitions. Winning entries in these local tiers were moved to a second jury of 15 district competitions. Just over 700 entries advanced from the district competitions and moved to the National American Advertising Awards jury, where 157 professional entries and 47 student entries received final selections as national awards. In the end, Jacob’s Gold Award-winning entry was part of a group that was less than one percent of total national entries. Judges at the national level included top creatives from global advertising agencies, such as Deutsch and Ogilvy.