Advertising Day on the Hill

Former US Congressmen Martin Frost (D-TX) and Kenny Hulshof (R-MO) speak to attendees Wednesday.

Our Director of Government Affairs, George Riddell, reports after his recent trip to Washington DC for the American Advertising Federation's "Advocacy In Action: Advertising Day on the Hill":

"Imagine if every one of your agency’s clients were suddenly forced to pay taxes on all advertising expenses which, for the past 100 years, have been fully deductible under approved US tax policies. Do you think that might affect the decisions those clients make about advertising? Like budgets? Might those decisions affect your agency’s business? Maybe your livelihood? The answers to all these questions are likely to be yes. There is one proposal under consideration in Washington DC that could have devastating effects on the advertising industry and the general US economy as well."

This is serious stuff, people. Read the rest of George's report on our Government Affairs News Blog.

Women Work Wonders for AAF Seattle

On International Women's Day 2014 we want to recognize and thank all the women who have come together to make us what we are in this past year.

We've enjoyed so many great women panelists, including our 3% Conference–inspired Women in Creativity, an all-women panel on Cause Marketing, and, finally, women on our Chalk Talk Super Bowl Ad Replay panel (even more women than men!).

We've had so many women attend events, join as members, and support our cause.

And we've had women in charge, from our board, including our president, Renee Peterson, to committee members, to volunteers, all helping shape our identity and making things happen where it matters.

We aspire to recognize creativity and ideas inclusively and to be a truly balanced organization. Thanks to every one of you who has contributed so much!

We Support Signage

We've seen that look. Trust us, you don't want that look.

Our Director of Government Affairs, George Riddell, appeared before the Seattle City Council on February 20th to add our voice to the opposition to proposed legislation that would strongly restrict signage on buildings. Despite vigorous debate and the detrimental effects that businesses would suffer if this were to pass, the council will vote on the bill.

Read George's full report on our Government Affairs News Blog.

ADDY Judging Weekend 2014

Our new ADDY chair, Audrey Berglund, reports on the events of this past weekend:

"Judging for this year’s American Advertising Awards Seattle took place February 7-9 in the Bertha Knight Landis room at Seattle City Hall. Our five judges reviewed a record amount of entries. Naturally, they had many tough decisions to make. Thanks to our judges who came from all over the country to spend the weekend looking at Seattle’s best advertising work!"

Find out more about our judges on our ADDY Judges page.

Chalk Talk: Super Bowl Ad Replay 2014 - The Recap

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Chris Cashman, Erin Kelley, Zach Huntting, Alison Tintle, Trish Cox, Matt McCain

AAF Seattle and PSAMA hosted our annual review of Super Bowl ads Thursday, February 6th, at Impact Hub Seattle. This year's expert panel of Erin Kelley (POSSIBLE), Zach Huntting (Crown Social), Alison Tintle (Seattle Wunderman Network), Trish Cox (T-Mobile), and Matt McCain (WongDoody) delivered another evening of crack observations, unique insights and tweetable witticisms, all under the clever direction of our MC, Chris Cashman from KING 5 TV's The 206.

In addition to our ad industry veterans, we always try to feature someone from the brand side of things. This year we were fortunate to have Trish Cox, VP of National Advertising and Brand for T-Mobile, who provided her own perspective on the creation of T-Mobile's three Super Bowl ads.

Redhook Bewery returned as our beer sponsor, loosening up our crowd with Audible, Redhook, and Longhammer on tap.

For a more detailed play-by-play check out our Storify compilation of all the Super Bowl ads along with the top tweets and pics from the evening and during the game.

Find out more about our panel and host on Lanyrd.
See all the pics from the event on Facebook.
If you attended the event, we'd love your feeback in our short survey.

Update on 2014-03-12 20:08

Conor Gentes, Senior Account Executive at Seattle Wunderman Network, wrote a great summary of the event for their blog. Thanks again for lending Alison for our panel!

The 2014 AAF Silver Medal Award Winner Is Brown. John Brown.

Our selection committee has chosen this year's worthy recipient, John Brown. The award will be presented during the American Advertising Awards on March 19th.

Congratulations to John Brown!

Read more about John Brown and the AAF Silver Medal Award.

Creative 12s: Super Bowl Edition

Just wow.

What a week leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII. And we thought the city was nuts for the NFC Championship! Our creatives kept their foot on the gas to such a degree we just had to make a sequel compilation. Great work, Creative 12s!

Check out how our creative community showed its 12th Man spirit on Storify!

Special thanks to thenewBlank for their cool modified Seahawks graphic that serves as the centerpiece of this collage.

We Are 12s: Seattle Creatives Support the Seahawks 2014 Playoff Run

206 is bringin' it!

The Seattle Seahawks are in the midst of what looks to be their best season ever. Seattle's creative professionals from agencies to brands are doing their part to show their team spirit as the city finds itself caught up in playoff fever.

Here's our Storify of Seattle's creative 12s in full-on Beast Mode!