Creative advertising students won 151 awards in 2019-20, the most in program history

In the last three years, Newhouse creative advertising students have seen tremendous growth in the number of wins at award shows worldwide. They won 127 awards during the 2017-18 awards season, followed by 142 awards in 2018-19. In 2019-20, students won an unprecedented 151 awards. Award season began last winter and ended during the pandemic, which makes the winners’ perseverance in overcoming challenges notable.

“It’s amazing that our students continued to carry the glory in the past year,” says James Tsao, chair of the advertising department. “[This is] thanks to our tireless professors, who keep raising the bar [and] made us be a creative powerhouse.”

All of the award-winning work was created in portfolio courses taught by professors Mel White and Kevin O’Neill.

Award-winning Scotch Tape ad by student Rachel Hayashi
Rachel Hayashi ’21, art director, Scotch Heavy Duty Shipping Tape, “The Strongest Hold”

Record Season

Sixty-two students won awards in some of the most prestigious competitions worldwide.

Awards season began with double wins at the Clio Awards, the world’s most recognizable international advertising awards, according to Time magazine. Then-students Yuxin Xiong and Will Milowsky’s idea, Drive Awake, won one of seven gold student awards worldwide—and the only gold award for Student Innovation. They used new technology to solve the problem of accidents caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

Mike Gaines was the first-ever Newhouse student to win a National ADDY Award. He won for his silver-winning campaign, Jeep Views. His billboard campaign featured a cut-out of the iconic Jeep grill with mountains visible behind it.

At the One Show Young Ones Art Directors Club competition, one of the world’s most acclaimed competitive showcases for advertising, there were only two print ad campaigns awarded worldwide, and Newhouse’s Sam Luo won one of them, for his Oral-B Floss campaign, Go In Deep. Emily Babcock and Jordanna Drazin won two awards for their experiential campaign Talk to the Times for The New York Times, sponsored by Droga5 for the One Show Young Ones Brief and ADC competitions. Janine Fernandez and Ari Schnitzer won for Spotify Drive, for Spotify, an idea for an app extension that plays music in response to the environment that continually changes while driving.

Award-winning Oral-b ad by student Sam Luo
Sam Luo ‘21, art director, Oral-b Glide Floss, “Go In Deep”

Out of all universities in the U.S., Newhouse students won the most at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards. Students won two bronze, five finalist and two shortlist awards.  

Out of over 1,000 student entries worldwide, Newhouse creative advertising students won two out of 28 awards in the prestigious Lurzers International Archive Students Contest. The two campaign winners were published, and two more were pre-selected for the international publication, which is also an honor.

Sixty-one awards were won in the Advertising Division of the Graphis New Talent competition, the most out of all colleges worldwide in that division. Out of the eight Platinum advertising awards given in the competition, an impressive five were won by Newhouse creative advertising students.

In the Communications Arts Student Showcase, Ivor Guest won one out of 13 awards for campaigns for Xbox, U-Haul and Smart Car.

In Ads of the World, 55 student ad campaigns ranging from print to digital were selected to be published.

Award-winning GoPro ad by student Joyee Lin
Joyee Lin ’20, art director, GoPro, “Adventure On”

151 creative advertising awards won by Newhouse students in the 2019-2020 school year:

Award-winning Folgers ad by student Ben Lin
Ben Lin ’21, art director, Folgers, “Fastest Brew”