NEW YORK, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The people have voted and the results are in! Today, beloved icons the AOL Running Man and the Budweiser Clydesdales, and memorable slogans "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There" from State Farm and "Virginia is for Lovers" from the Virginia Bureau of Tourism," were inducted into the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame during the first day of Advertising Week 2009.
The 2009 winners were joined on stage in Times Square by fellow nominees including the Travelocity Roaming Gnome, Mr. Clean, the Vlasic Stork, Smokey Bear, Crash Test Dummies, McGruff the Crime Dog, Sprout, and Red and Yellow of M&M fame.
Both the icon and slogan winners will hold permanent positions on Madison Avenue, the advertising industry's version of Hollywood and Vine, and will be recognized in the Advertising Icon Museum, forever establishing them as major fixtures in American popular culture.
Since the annual Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame public vote began in 2004, nearly 3 million votes have been cast. Voting is supported by Advertising Age and USA Today.
The Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame (located between 42nd and 50th streets) was created by Advertising Week, the largest gathering of advertising, media and marketing professionals in North America. Now in its sixth year, Advertising Week is currently being held in New York City from September 21-25, 2009. The Grand Central Partnership and Advertising Week organizers have brought the Walk of Fame to life with a combination of bronze plaques and permanent lamppost street banners on Madison Avenue.
"In a partisan political environment, these campaigns are often brutal. Each nominee put up a good clean fight and to the credit of the winners, all stayed on high political, moral and ethical ground. There was heated debate, intense scrutiny by the voting public and in the end, America embraced the contemporary AOL Running Man and the classic Budweiser Clydesdales. And two truly iconic slogans "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is there" and "Virginia is for Lovers" also join the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame. Congratulations to all the winners and the agency creatives and copywriters behind the curtain for all four 2009 inductees," stated Matt Scheckner Executive Director of Advertising Week.
The Walk of Fame was created not only to celebrate great advertising icons and slogans, but to recognize their business and role in brand building.
The 2009 Walk of Fame winners join past years inductees: The Geico Caveman, Serta Sheep, Juan Valdez, the AFLAC Duck, Mr. Peanut, Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, M&M's, the Geico Gecko, Colonel Sanders, Orville Redenbacher, Chick-fil-A Cows, and the Kool-Aid Man.
Previous slogan winners include: "What Can Brown Do For You?" (UPS), "We Deliver for You" (The United States Postal Service),"Melts In Your Mouth, Not In Your Hand" (M&M's), "Can you hear me now?" (Verizon), "When It Absolutely, Positively, Has to Be There Overnight" (FedEx), "Imagination at Work" (General Electric), "Don't Mess With Texas" (State of Texas Department of Transportation), "Where's the Beef?" (Wendy's) "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" (United Negro College Fund) and "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" (Almond Joy/Mounds).
2009 Slogan Nominees:
"All the news that's fit to print" (The New York Times), Because Your Worth It (L'Oreal), Eat Fresh (Subway), Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk (U.S. Department of Transportation), Give a Hoot. Don't Pollute (USDA Forest Service), Got Milk? (California Milk Process Board), Have It Your Way (Burger King), Ideas for Life (Panasonic), I Love New York (City of New York), I Want My MTV (MTV Networks), I'm Loving It (McDonalds), If You See Something, Say Something (MTA), Intel Inside (Intel), It's In The Game (EA Sports), Just Do It (Nike), Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There (State Farm), Six Flags, More Flags, More Fun! (Six Flags), Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires (USDA Forest Service), Priceless (MasterCard), Take a Bite Out of Crime (National Crime Prevention Council), These Guys Are Good (PGA Tour), Think Outside the Bun (Taco Bell), Time to Make the Donuts (Dunkin Donuts), This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs (Partnership for a Drug Free America), Virginia is For Lovers (State of Virginia), and What Happens Here, Stays Here (City of Las Vegas).
2009 Icon Nominees:
AOL Running Man, Big Boy, Budweiser Clydesdales, Burger King, California Raisins, Captain Morgan, Crash Test Dummies, Doublemint Twins, Fruit of the Loom Guys, Jolly Green Giant, Keebler Elves, Little Debbie, Maytag Repairman, McGruff the Crime Dog, Ronald McDonald, Michelin Man, Mr. Clean, Mr. Mucus, MSN Butterfly, Smokey Bear, Snap, Crackle and Pop, Subway's Jared, Test Man, Travelocity Roaming Gnome, Tucan Sam and the Vlasic Stork.
About Advertising Week:
Since its creation in 2004, Advertising Week has drawn thousands of participants from around the world to New York City for a week long think-tank comprised of over 200 different events, panels and discussions that focus on the power of advertising and its neighboring industries. Above and beyond celebration, the mission of the Week is to inspire young people to join the craft; focus the industry and public at-large on the social impacts of advertising; address the most important issues facing the industry and shine a bright light on the business and economic influence of the advertising, media and marketing industries.
