Della Femina Captures Award With Isuzu Ads

After four consecutive years of winning the West Coast’s most prestigious ad award, the Los Angeles ad firm Chiat/Day has lost out to Joe Isuzu.

Honest.

A little-known Isuzu ad campaign, featuring the loose-lipped liar giving golf tips while cheating on the course, captured the top prize Tuesday evening at the 22nd annual Belding Awards. The ads, created by the Los Angeles office of the ad firm Della Femina, Travisano & Partners, aired only before and during a Honolulu golf tournament that Isuzu sponsored last fall.

“It’s the natural course of events,” said Peter Stranger, president of Della Femina’s West Coast division. “Chiat/Day has won four years in a row. Now, it’s our turn,” he said in an interview before the ceremony.

Chiat/Day, however, did not leave empty-handed. Some 1,600 advertising executives at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion watched Chiat/Day walk off with six awards. That was more than any other agency in the contest limited to ad firms with offices in Southern California. The ad agency Keye/Donna/Pearlstein won five awards--including two for anti-drug crusade advertisements; and the ad firm Rubin Postaer & Associates garnered four awards--all for Honda ads.

Advertising executives say that while winning ad awards such as Beldings do not usually result in added business, award-winning agencies often do attract top creative talent.

Ironically, Chiat/Day did not win a single award for its biggest client, Nissan. Two of Chiat/Day’s awards were for ads it previously created for Porsche--a client that the ad firm dropped late last year in order to pick up the $150-million Nissan business.

But even beforehand, Chiat/Day’s West Coast boss was not concerned about the possibility of losing the top prize. “Were the Yankees on their way out after they lost one pennant?” said Bob Wolf, president of Chiat/Day’s Los Angeles office.

The contest received a record 1,760 entries--including television, radio and print ads--said Sandra Inbody-Brick, who is president of the ad firm Inbody-Brick & Chamis, and who heads the Belding Awards committee. “The fact is, you never know what the judges will like,” she said.

The 21 judges, mostly executives from creative departments at ad agencies, didn’t seem to much like expensive commercials. In fact, the winning ad campaign--the three 10- and 15-second Isuzu spots--was filmed for a total cost of less than $10,000, said Stranger. More typically, a single 30-second commercial today can cost between $75,000 and $150,000 to produce.

In the winning ad campaign, Joe Isuzu--played by actor David Leisure--displays his cheating skills on the golf course. In one ad, he taps a ball into the hole with the side of his foot. And in another ad, the loquacious liar says, “I’ll show you the perfect way to get out of a sand trap.”

He proceeds to pick up the golf ball and toss it onto the putting green.