Ad Agencies Get Their Chance to Crow : Recognition: The 33rd Annual Orange County AdAwards ranged from sublime to humorous to timely and resulted in lots of gold and silver.

In life as in advertising, the winning entries in the 33rd Annual Orange County AdAwards announced Saturday tapped into a range of human emotions.

There was the sublime: Sunlight peeks through an oak tree in a newspaper advertisement for the Rancho Santa Margarita development that won a “best of show award” for Salvati Montgomery Sakota of Costa Mesa in the print category.

There was the humorous: A Yamaha organ that could play so many pitches that it was compared to the changing voices of a kid going through puberty. The ad captured a gold award for the deYoung Ginsberg Weisman Bailey agency in Irvine.

And there was the timely: A bumper sticker reading “My other truck is a Mazda” pasted on the back of a mud-splotched Army tank. The ad, created by Foote, Cone & Belding in Santa Ana, was the winner of a gold award.

All told, nearly 900 entries were submitted for consideration at the annual awards dinner held Saturday night at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. Although the number of categories was cut this year, the agencies still competed for gold, silver and merit awards in 89 categories. The competition even included a new category for ads that never appeared anywhere.

“The AdAwards is the only way we have to gain recognition nationally and to build our reputation,” said AdAwards Chairman Michael Maxsenti. Orange County ad agencies “need to build and hold onto top creative talent and make the local business community aware of the talent that exists here.”

He said his efforts to rebuild the awards ceremony has paid off. The number of entries is up 20% and the number of firms entering the contest is up by 30%.

For the third straight year, the firms of dGWB and Salvati dominated the competition. While capturing the coveted best of show for print, Salvati won fewer awards overall than dGWB. Salvati had four golds, seven silvers and three merits to dGWB’s six golds, eight silvers and 12 merits.

Other leading firms included Foote Cone & Belding, with three golds, five silvers and three merits; Dean Gerrie Design of Santa Ana, two golds, one silver and one merit; InterCommunications in Newport Beach, one best of show, one gold, one silver and four merits, and Townsend & O’Leary in Laguna Hills, one best of show and one gold, silver and merit award.

Townsend & O’Leary’s best of show in the broadcast category came for a radio spot that promoted Uniglobe Travel International. InterCommunication’s best of show was for a company Christmas card entered in the self-promotion category that highlighted the need to recycle.

Maxsenti said he was especially pleased with the new student category. He said that it will not only reward students and entice them to start thinking about the professional world but steer them in the direction of Orange County as well. The winners were Doug Makai of Cal State Long Beach, who won a gold and a silver, and David Annala of Cypress College, who took home a silver.