Casanova Pendrill named OBIE Finalist.

Casanova Pendrill was named a finalist for one of the biggest prizes in advertising, an OBIE Award, by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). The OBIE Awards recognize creative excellence in outdoor advertising and are the oldest awards program in the industry.

Casanova Pendrill is one of 42 agencies competing for the prestigious OBIE Best of Show. Competition this year was especially fierce, with over 1,000 executions being judged by an all star lineup of industry talent.

Casanova Pendrill is nominated for the UNICEF Tap Project campaign. The agency bottled water in eight lethal varieties (Malaria, Cholera, Typhoid, etc.) and built a vending machine to distribute the bottles in return for $1 donations to UNICEF’s Tap Project. The money went to the organization’s global safe drinking water programs for children. More than 7,500 pedestrians in Manhattan responded and, months later, online donations and text messages continue to arrive.

Chief Judge Stan Richards, creative director for The Richards Group, said this year’s entries showed off the power of outdoor advertising to accomplish an advertiser’s goals.

“Part of the reason I like the medium so much is it’s one of the ways we can reach the greatest amount of people in the shortest amount of time, and if you use the medium really well, it can be tremendously efficient,” said Stan Richards, this year’s Chief Judge. “There are a lot of things in the show that are terrific, things that any creative would look at and say, ‘I wish I had done that.’”