Burnett kills with 35 wins at NY Int’l Ad Awards

LEO BURNETT WORLDWIDE was not only the “Agency of the Year” at the International Advertising Awards in New York earlier this month, but it won a record 35 awards, including six of the total 24 Gold prizes, from 14 global offices. “This demonstrates yet again, the remarkable creative talent we have residing inside this network,” boasts Leo Burnett Global CCO Mark Tutssel.

The massive Burnett sweep includes 16 prizes for Burnett Chicago, mostly for its Allstate Insurance Mr. Mayhem campaign, also Symantec Norton Internet Security, McDonald’s, Kellogg’s, Ninento DSi and P&G.   

Burnett-owned Hispanic agency Lapiz won seven prizes for the same Allstate client and campaign.

Other winners: DDB for Budweiser and McDonald’s, Y&R for DieHard, Energy BBDO for the City of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute, a student PSA.

FYI: The New York Advertising Festivals is owned by Jimmy Smyth, the original founder and owner of Optimus. He sold the company to Anheuser-Busch, which, five years later sold to its present owners.

TRIBUNE FILM CRITIC Michael Phillips and Chicago Film Office director Rich Moskal will start Chicago Live’s  discussion about moviemaking in Chicago with “Why does Chicago get Superman but not Batman?” (Good question!) 

 The Trib’s Rick Kogan hosts the 60-minute discussion at the Chicago Theatre Downstairs at the Chicago Theatre, starting at 6:30 p.m.   The shows are also taped for broadcast on WGN.

 Tickets, $20, may be purchased at the theatre box office.  The discussion is followed by a meet and mingle reception with the guests and Tribune personalities.  Note — so you won’t get lost.  Entrance to the Theatre Downstairs is located in the alleyway on the Randolph Street side of the Chicago Theatre.    

COMEDY DIRECTOR Chris Davis is the newest director being represented by Concentrated, the visual media collaborative founded in 2008 by partner/directors Mark Cwiakala and Jon Singer.  Davis joins the Concentrated directorial roster of Dan Goldberg, John Bonio, Matt Achterberg and Michael Maes.

 Also a writer and producer, with expertise working with comedic actors like Greg Hollimon and TJ Jagodowski, Davis has won several awards for branded content and short films.  He recently produced a branded content video “QT-TV Kids” for home and beauty product inventor, Lori Greiner.  See concentrated.tv/.

YOUR GOOD WISHES would cheer veteran talent agent Mickey Grossman of Grossman Jack, who has been battling cancer for the past year and is now having hospice care at his home.  Send your messages to mickeyg@grossmanjack.com.  

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME. We scored with The Playboy Club shooting the series in Chicago, but lost Cooper & Stone, the proposed Cagney & Lacey-like series when the CW network passed on the Chicago-made pilot for a series.  

DIGITAL KITCHEN, now reinvented as a digital advertising agency in addition to being a national production company, has expanded its Chicago office with the addition of three key staffers.  They are new business director Shannon Babcock, communications director William Byrne and creative recruiting director Tina Roth.  

They report to DK’s creative heads, Mark Bashore and Jeff Long and will support the agency’s growth in its Seattle, L.A. and Chicago offices. 

AT OTHER UPPER LEVELS:  Element 79 probably will elevate 10-year agency veteran SVP/GCD Canice Neary to replace Dennis Ryan as top creative.  In February, Ryan departed Element 79 and DDB after a total of 21 years to join Minneapolis-based Olson.

ALSO: Draftfcb elevated EVP/chief strategic planning officer Jamie Shuttleworth to chief strategy officer.  He’s succeeded by Karl Trumbull, EVP/group director of strategic planning.  Shuttleworth will oversee both the planning and customer intelligence departments, which together have close to 100 staffers.

THE DAILY PLANET is getting ready for a Rock & Art Poster party June 24 at its studios at 720 N. Franklin.  The rockin’ evening includes 15 local artists, hand-screened rock and art posters, a DJ, food and drink.

THE WHITEHOUSE PRODUCER Laurie Adrianopoli-turned-filmmaker writes: “We shot a little film in our chicago office in one day.  It stars my hairless cat.  It was cut and some after effects were added the next day and then we put it up on the internet.

“So far we have had over half a million hits.”

“Check it out here and see what you think.” 

A CAUTIONARY TALE.  A Minnesota filmmaker, Wendy Weiner Runge, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for her role in defrauding the state in a scheme to collect film tax incentives. 

In February, she pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulent practices and was accused of overinflating the cost of items used during film productions to the Iowa Film Office, in order to collect tax credits.

The state has filed a civil suit against Weiner Runge, seeking to regain the money lost from the tax credits. Weiner Runge, in turn, is suing the state claiming defamation.