In the first of four blog posts for Boards, Arnold Worldwide chief creative officer Pete Favat takes us inside the jury room of the 2010 ANDY Awards where the buzz words are flying fast and furious. Judging is taking place in New Orleans from Feb. 21 to 27.

As I landed in New Orleans this Sunday afternoon, it dawned on me: Holy shit. New Orleans. This place went through hell. Ty Montague, ANDY Chairman and JWT chief creative officer/co-president, said a few words about it as all the jurors gathered to hear the plan for this year’s judging.

He spoke about how this city had to pick itself up and carry on. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen the location of an awards show treated as a concept. Hats off to Ty, ANDYs co-chairman Michael Leibowitz and The Advertising Club executive director Gina Grillo for having us judge the state of the industry in a place that had to rebuild itself. I’m in. I’m ready.

A colorful home off Bourbon St. in New Orleans.

OK, so the day is going like all first days of judging: slogging through lots of work that seems very sub-par. I always get bummed on the first day, but I know it gets better from here.

It all started with Euro RSCG global CCO Remi Babinet, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners creative director Erik Vervroegen and I sitting on the floor going through some print pieces. They looked like they barely survived Katrina. Warped, bent and looking like hell. Who is packing this stuff up?

A few pieces found us all looking at each other speechless and scratching our heads. Soon after, we uttered a collective “NO” and then moved a few pieces we quickly agreed could go on to the next level. Even warped and tattered, great ideas can still pop.

McCann’s SVP, digital group creative director Alessandra Lariu just walked in the room. A little late but she brought good attitude with her. We all wonder if there was a screening process because there is still a flood of work coming through that could never make it.

Jurors Erik Vervroegen and Alessandra Lariu

Remi Babinet

The automotive category is up. There are a few cool things that have gone by. DDB Stockholm’s piano piece for VW is getting us to talk. A couple of us have asked though, what does it have to do with VW? There are a couple of ideas that are standing out, but overall the category is not so strong.

The Creative Technology category is next. I’m looking forward to this. There’s the Chalkbot for Nike’s Livestrong. Very cool, the machine imprinted messages people uploaded all along the Tour de France.

There are a lot of videos that don’t grab us right away and seem to never get to a clear point. Everybody, listen up! Make the first 15 seconds of your videos engaging for the judges. There are tons of these videos and they all seem to be saying and doing the same things.

Next up is a category called “Best Program to Make People’s Lives Better”. Erik asked, “Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do with all our work?” He’s funny.

I think Prius wins the award for entering the most work.

Toshiba “Space Chair” is cool. Some questioned if it was real. I saw the making-of video and it looked pretty damn real. We hoped no one was injured when the chair broke apart and fell back down to earth.

I miss Jeff Goodby this year. He ain’t here. We sit in alphabetical order when we judge and I got to goof off with Jeff. Fun times.

ADVERTILITY. Yup, just when you thought you’d heard all the buzz words, “advertility” rushes right up in your grill. Not sure what it means, nobody really did, and I forget what video it was on, but it stuck. ADVERTILITY folks. That’s where it’s going.

But wait. Stop the bus. Holy crap. Another one. TWAGMENTED REALITY!!!! A Twitter AR piece? It’s almost 8pm now and we have been judging for 11 hours. I feel TWAGMENTALLY CHALLENGED.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Peace,

Pete