The judging for the 2010 ANDY Awards in New Orleans is now finished. In his fourth and final blog post for Boards, juror and Arnold Worldwide chief creative officer Pete Favat gives us a blow-by-blow account of the “Judgedrome”.

Today is probably the most exciting part of judging this great show. So far every judge has seen, heard and listened to every idea entered. In some ways it’s completely exhausting. But this group’s stamina to keep going every single day for five straight days, and most times 10 to 11 hours a day, is pretty freaking remarkable.

Many of you may think that this can’t be hard. A boondoggle, or not really work. You would be wrong to think that way. If you don’t truly love this profession and you are not completely committed to making it better, there is no way you would make it through the labrynth. And you would have no reason to be in this room right now. The thing that amazes me is the group attitude. A re-learning every year what some of us have been doing for 15  to 20 years. That no matter how much time you have put into your job you never really know what is coming next. I love that. It keeps things fresh and exciting.

Pete Favat (right) with Shepard Fairey and his wife Amanda Ayala.

Here’s how the day began. Eat breakfast with graphic designer/graffiti artist Shepard Fairey. He is here today with his lovely wife Amanda Ayala to help us judge the work and tonight, raise money for the Make It Right Foundation. He has assembled a group of artists and artwork to auction off at an event in Nawlins tonight (also available for anyone to bid on for the next week on eBay). Should be fun. But first, a full and intense day. Shepard is a terrific guy and we chat about screen printing and our art school days for a half hour. He’s a Rhode Island School of Design grad. I’m an School of Visual Arts (SVA) grad and we have a mutual friend in Steve Heller at SVA in NYC. Plus, oh yeah. His work is fucking brilliant, so there is that to talk about.

We finish up and go to judge. Full of coffee and excitement.

We enter the “Judgedrome.”

Ty Montague, our chairman, sets the ground rules - and the tone: “We are here today to seek out World Championship-level work, folks.” You can sense the level of anticipation. A list with all the finalists, that over that last four days have been deemed worthy of ANDY status. It isn’t that long which is good. If it were long we have been too soft. I think we have been tough and diligent.

We dive into the first order of business and what most of us feel is the highest importance. Student work. Why do I say that? They are the future. And we, in some ways are the past. We need to help guide them. We will all be handing off the reins to these kids one day, and we better make sure for the sake of our industry we point them in the right direction.

There is some real killer stuff here and it’s great to see the future creatives thinking in new ways. But you will have to wait to see what we think is great at the show in April.

Next: print. Some very interesting public service ideas from the UK and a fantastic idea from Zimbabwe. We figure out metal status and debate. The debate is good, not fierce but passionate. What’s interesting here is the jury is comprised of a lot of folks with digital backgrounds and some of them I am certain don’t really touch this medium. That, to me, makes it very interesting to hear what they have to say and learn from their perspective about what they think is good and bad. We make progress and we all know there is a ton of digital and video work to go through.

On to video. This is where its gets fun. Or hairy, however you want to look at it. To me intensity is fun. But I’m a wingnut, so there.

We look at all the work again and put a harsh filter on it all to make sure the work lives up to the metal ANDY head. I cannot tell you what wins here but I will tell you some personal favorites of mine. That does not mean it won anything. You will have to wait for the show.

WE CHOOSE THE MOON. A website created to mark the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing. It was created for the Kennedy Museum and it’s pretty amazing. Especially listening to the communication with the astronauts.

THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD. The Dos Equis campaign out of Euro RSCG, New York. Fantastic, funny as hell, a solid big idea that will last for a long while and can travel in every channel. The copy in some places is the best in the show.

In reflecting on the discussions, debates, whatever is centered around categories, I think there is a change happening for sure here. We try to invent new categories and that’s good, but most times it causes confusion. An evolution of them is still needed. It’s like everything in this business, it needs to keep changing, keep evolving. But there are too many questions and, in my humble opinion, not a firm understanding of what the categories really mean. I think agencies and the judges are sometimes unsure in some areas how we are supposed to enter the work and award them. Are there too many categories? Should we eliminate categories altogether and just focus on what is killer work? There is much more thought that needs to go into this.

I think it’s very interesting that public service cannot win the grand prize. The feeling is that it may be too easy to win because it’s thought that public service work may be easier to do than other work. As someone who has done a massive amount of both I will tell you that’s bullshit. More and more of our clients are doing this kind of work at big companies. I try to push them to it. There are amazing stats on how people buy goods and services that are attached to a great cause.

We have just finished. It was very very interesting to see what happened and where all the precious metals have landed. For the top prize we literally had to vote five times because of very passionate pleas, and outright frustrations, over the choices.

“What are we trying to comunicate to everyone with our choices” was the topic. And in a very, very, very tough economic year this added a layer of debate I have never seen before.

It got pretty crazy in the Judgedrome today. And I loved every minute. But you will have to wait till the show to see where we ended up.

Pete Favat (right) with Mad Men cast member Bryan Batt.

So it comes to an end. We are done. We are at the auction now. Schmoozing, relaxing still talking about advertising if you can believe that. (Some of us can’t stop.) Then, HOLY CRAP!!!!!! I look across the room. Bryan Batt! Or as some of you may know him, Salvatore Romano from Mad Men. He is from New Orleans and is here to be at the auction too. I walk over with my pal Jose Molla, co-founder/ECD of la comunidad, and start up a chat. Great guy, Bryan.

So, I look at it this way. I spent the entire week immersed in the future of advertising and the last night talking about advertising’s past with Brian. Magic.

This has been fun to write. I hope maybe someone reads it.

Peace,

Pete