May 10 in the grand ballroom of New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel The One Club hosted its much-coveted Pencil Awards for excellence in advertising. It was the culmination of a weeklong festival.

The events were conspicuous by an obvious lack of attendance on the parts of ad professionals. The first three days were dominated by a student design competition. Admirable, in and of itself, but there was definitely a lack of weighty presence at the Puck Building on Lafayette Street, which played host to the week's events.

The exception was the Gold on Gold speaker series, which saw presentations from previous Gold Pencil holders Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, The Jupiter Drawing Room, Johannesburg, bicoastal hungry man and Leo Burnett, Singapore. Most notable was Jupiter Drawing Room's recap of its work for Nike South Africa which took inspiration from members of the 2000 Paralympics Team and designed a great campaign last year around their success.

Another point of interest was this year's Best in Show honor, which was handed to Fallon and Anonymous Content's BMWfilms.com series of online shorts directed by top Hollywood filmmakers John Frankenheimer, Wong Kar Wai, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie and Alejandro Gonzales Inãrritu.

Sadly, I am unable to comment on the Pencils themselves as I left the room with a fellow journalist friend who managed to insult the crowd of some six hundred by standing and shouting "Stand down, you're boring," at the master of ceremonies (who could not have been less funny).

One heroic ad exec came up to our table pre-departure asking if my friend had been planted in the audience on purpose. "No," he responded. "Then I think everyone wants you to leave, man." Obviously he was not part of security so we'll have to assume he was just a copywriter. Real security was just a step behind.

As for me, what is it they say about not being able to choose your old friends...?

GOLD AWARDS

Category: PSA/Political (single)
Title: Kill Your Speed
Agency: AMV.BBDO London
Director/Production Company: Stuart Douglas, @radical.media
Client: DETR

Category: PSA/Political (campaign)
Title: Helder/Henrique/Teresa
Agency: BBDO Portugal/Lisbon
Director/Production Company: Marco Martins, Ministério Filmes
Client: PRP (Portuguese Road Safety)

Category: Single Spot over :30
Title: Series
Agency: Agulla & Bacetti, Buenos Aires
Director/Production Company: Fabian Bielinski, Argentina Cine
Client: La Buenos Aires Insurance

Category: Single Spot over :30
Title: Odyssey
Agency: BBH, London
Director/Production Company: Jonathan Glazer, Academy Productions
Client: Levi Strauss

Category: Campaign Spot over :30
Title: Tag/Tailgating/Shade Runner
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy/Portland
Director/Production Company: Frank Budgen & Tom Carty, Gorgeous Enterprises
Client: Nike

Category: Single Spot :30/:25
Title: School
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi/London
Director/Production Company: Dom & Nic, Outsider
Client: Toyota Great Britain

Category: Campaigns :30/:25
Title: In Case You Missed It
Agency: The Concept Farm/New York
Director/Production Company: Gregg Wasiak & John Gellos, Production Farm
Client: Channel International

Category: Single Spot under :20
Title: The Weight Check
Agency: Hakuhodo/Tokyo
Director/Production Company: Yasuhito Nakae, Agency Producer
Client: -Cola Japan

Category: Campaign under :20
Title: Rainforest/Following Car/Battle
Agency: BMP DDB/London
Director/Production Company: Dean Webb, writer/art director
Client: Guardian Film 4

Category: Campaign any length
Title: Secret Squirrel/Jane Jetson Microwave/Fred Car
Agency: Cartoon Network Latin America/ Atlanta
Director/Production Company: Larry Robertson
Client: Cartoon Network Latin America

Category: Spot Budget Under $50K
Title: Fred Car
Agency: Cartoon Network Latin America/ Atlanta
Director/Production Company: Keith Adams
Client: Cartoon Network Latin America

Category: Cinema Spot
Title: Cheryl & Me
Agency: Black Rocket, San Francisco
Director/Production Company: Baker Smith, Tate & Partners
Client: Lucky Magazine

Category: Foreign Language Spot
Title: Domino
Agency: D'Arcy, Hong Kong
Director/Production Company: Dogboy, Renegade Films
Client: Philips Lighting