2021 Chicago ADDYs

This year we celebrated the best in Chicago creative over the last year and kicked off a series of conversations on creativity with a panel of Chicago’s creative leaders. If you missed the discussion that took place on May 20, you can watch it on demand by purchasing it here (coming soon), it’s free for CAF Members and $15 for Nonmembers.

CAF congratulates all the winners, join the Ad Community on Friday, June 11 at 5:00 p.m. ET for the National Show and Gala. For more info click here.

Chicago Winners

District 6 Winners

Speakers

Shelley Elkins
Global Chief Creative Officer, Jack Morton

An award-winning creative leader with more than 20 years of industry experience, Shelley drives the creative vision for the agency globally. She also chairs the agency’s Global Creative Council — a group comprised of creative leaders representing each office designed to foster collaboration and push the boundaries of brand experience.

Based in Chicago, Elkins has been instrumental in driving award-winning and results-generating creative for the agency. Under her direction, Jack has garnered several high-profile industry awards including Clios, Shorty’s, Reggies, EX, and PRO awards for clients such as P&G, COVERGIRL, and M&M’s. A writer by trade, Shelley is passionate about storytelling and helping brands prove their promise. She is also committed to building teams that reflect the diverse world we live in, better supporting diverse talent, and better-supporting parents in the workplace.

A mom herself of Lincoln, Madeline, and her first baby, the Outlaw Josey Wales (a husky-shepherd rescue), Shelley loves spending time with her kids and husband, traveling, baking and gardening.

Prior to joining Jack Morton, Shelley led creative for Digitas in Chicago and San Francisco on several AOR accounts including KitchenAid, Emerson, and eBay. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism School with an emphasis in advertising.

Jeff Immel
Executive Creative Director, Weber Shandwick

With almost 20 years of marketing experience, Jeff brings a strong design background and a conceptual lens to both the traditional and social communications spaces. His time at Weber Shandwick has seen him impact some of the largest and most iconic brands in the business including Kellogg’s, M&M’S, Got Milk?, Verizon, Mondelez, Anheuser-Busch, and many more. He’s always searching for big ideas that will stand out and break through the clutter – no matter what the medium.

Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, Jeff spent time at Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide as well as DraftFCB. His varied experience includes work across television, print, digital, social, and direct for clients such as Oreo, Maytag, Blackberry, Coca-Cola, Motorola, and others.

Jeff is a born and bred Chicagoan who travels the continents from Z to A—Antarctica and Australia have yet to be conquered but are on his list.

Lewis McVey
Group Creative Director, Havas Chicago

Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Lewis made his way to advertising via furniture making in his hometown, teaching English in Budapest, and acting in films no one has ever seen. A writer by trade, he has established himself as an award-winning thinker and skilled team leader at some of the best agencies in the business, including Hill Holliday, DDB, MRM McCann, Digitas, and now Havas.

A true 360 thinker, Lewis brings a wealth of relevant experience to the CITI team he’s led for the last three years, including American Express (Small Business Saturday, card services), ExxonMobil (nationwide retail), and a digitally-led, brand relaunch of the travel brand Orbitz. More recently, he has led all creative for the National Association of REALTORS®, America’s largest trade organization. Outside of the office, Lewis’ interests include cycling, photography, and urbanism.

Aubrey Walker
Executive Creative Director, OKRP

Walker most recently oversaw the agency’s partnership with the Chicago Urban League and the City of Chicago to turn Black Friday into “Black Shop Friday,” an initiative to support over 500 black-owned businesses in Chicago by encouraging holiday shoppers to “Spend Green, Shop Black,” as they shop online and order food to-go this holiday season. He has also led the agency’s recent work for the Illinois Lottery and other accounts.

Walker joined OKRP full-time in February after working at the agency as a freelancer. The veteran copywriter and creative leader previously worked at such agencies as Carol H. Williams, Leo Burnett, Matlock, Burrell, The TRUE Agency, Globalhue, common ground, GMR, MKTG, and FCBX before starting his own independent freelance consultancy, TEACHERS NEVER LIKED US.

Over the course of his career, Walker has created award-winning campaigns for a wide variety of brands including Tide, Gatorade, Nike, Bacardi Global, Jeep Call of Duty, Coors Light, Tropicana, and Illinois Lottery.

About the program

The American Advertising Awards is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, attracting nearly 35,000 entries every year through local AAF club Competitions. The Chicago Advertising Federation serves as the local club for the Chicagoland areas. The mission of the American Advertising Awards competition is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising. The Chicago Advertising Federation (CAF) is proud to announce the winners of the local 2021 American Advertising Awards (AAA). One of the industry’s largest creative competitions, AAA rewards the spirit of creative excellence in advertising, seeing tens of thousands of submissions from both professional organizations and students each year. CAF gold and silver winners were advanced to the District 6 competition, comprising submissions from Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Winners of the District competition are advanced to the AAF national competition. The National winners will be announced virtually at the American Advertising Federation annual conference.