18 Charities Win Awards for Ads

The Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s effort to project a different image through its marketing

materials helped it win one of this year’s American Advertising Awards, known as Addys.

The institution was looking for a way to call attention to new artistic leadership and to tell potential ticket buyers and donors that the theater was contemporary and sophisticated.

In a booklet promoting the 1999-2000 season it placed a picture of a torn ticket stub on the front cover, and on the back cover, a closed red curtain. Inside, each of five shows is illustrated with a picture of the show’s poster opposite a brief description of the production.

The booklet, designed by the Buntin Group, in Nashville, was sent to 15,000 people, including season subscribers and potential donors of major gifts, and was given out when the theater met with corporate leaders considering sponsorships.

A smaller version of the booklet, using the same artwork, was sent in mass mailings and inserted in newspapers and local magazines. Posters from each performance were given to board members and displayed around Nashville.

The American Advertising Federation in Washington honored 18 non-profit groups in the annual Addy competition, which recognizes creative excellence in advertising.

Other awards were given to Stop It Now, in Haydenville, Mass., which developed ads to encourage people to report potential child abuse; the American Heart Association’s San Jose, Calif., chapter, for a fund-raising event based on the game Monopoly; and the Texas Neurofibromatosis Foundation, a health organization based in Dallas that wanted to show that people with this potentially disfiguring condition are human.