L.A.’s Pytka the Big Winner at Clio Awards

Joe Pytka has done it again. Of course, he had the help of people like Michael J. Fox and Michael Jordan.

Fox, with the help of a photocopier, turned a photograph into a can of Pepsi.Jordan hit a slam dunk for Nike. And Pytka got it all down on film. Monday evening, those television commercials earned the advertising industry’s highest honors--the Clio awards.

For the third consecutive year, the production company based in Los Angeles’ Venice area has walked off as the major winner of the New York-based Clio competition. The company--which calls itself simply Pytka--walked away with eight of the 65 U.S. television Clios handed out at the 28th annual Clio awards at Lincoln Center. That’s two more than the firm won last year.

No one has yet suggested renaming the Clios the Pytkas. But the chief executive of one large New York ad firm did say: “There’s hardly an agency chief in town that doesn’t have Joe Pytka’s phone number at the top of his Rolodex.”

Of course, Pytka isn’t the only show in town--just the hottest. Last Friday, another 135 Clios were also awarded for top radio, print and billboard advertising. Clios are awarded to the advertising agencies that create the ads as well as the production companies that film them. Clios are commonly called the “Academy Awards” of commercials.

“Clios are nice, but the worst thing you can do in this business is rest on your laurels,” said Pytka. “As soon as you sit back, you’re dead.”

Pytka isn’t sitting back. Best known for his knack at producing ads that entertain, Pytka has filmed more than 200 Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler ads--another six of which he expects to film later this week. And he is still producing a set of long-delayed Pepsi ads--featuring singer Michael Jackson--that industry sources say may be among the most expensive commercials ever made.

“I make commercials that don’t seem to have commercial messages,” Pytka said. His company also picked up three Clios on Monday for its “Chuck Wagon” ad for Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve.

One reason he wins so many Clios, Pytka says, is that he carefully selects the ad agencies he works with. He shared Clios, for example, with San Francisco-based Hal Riney & Partners on the Henry Weinhard spots, and with New York-based Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BBDO) on the Pepsi spots. And he also shared a Clio with Boston-based Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc., for a slice-of-life John Hancock commercial that shows a father holding his infant daughter while telling her that he got a raise.

But Pytka didn’t produce what many consider to be the most unusual commercial of the year, the “Lunch Box” spot for the California Raisin Advisory Board that features raisins that sing and dance. That spot, created by the San Francisco office of Foote, Cone & Belding, won four Clios on Monday.

But the man in charge of the awards saw little originality among this year’s winners. “The quality is there,” said Bill Evans, president of the Clio awards, “but the recent ad agency mega-mergers seemed to have killed a lot of creativity.”

Still, BBDO, which became part of the giant Omnicom Group through a merger, picked up six of the awards.

“Winning lots of Clios can help create an aura about an agency,” said Philip B. Dusenberry, chairman of the New York office of BBDO. At the same time, however, Clios can sometimes cost agencies “some of their best creative people,” he said.

After a creative director wins a Clio, “he’s knocking on your door the next day for a raise,” said Al Hampel, a New York industry consultant who has won 10 Clios. “Creative people really cherish these things. But Procter & Gamble and General Foods couldn’t care less if their ads win Clios. They just want the products to sell.”

Seeking More Beef

Hoping to put more beef in its $50-million worth of advertising, Wendy’s on Monday hired its third new ad agency in less then a year. This time, the troubled fast food chain, based in Dublin, Ohio, tapped Backer & Spielvogel, the New York ad firm that created the “Tastes Great, Less Filling” campaign for Miller Lite beer. The Jeer Leaders

Clios weren’t the only ad awards handed out Monday. Awards for misleading, unfair and irresponsible advertising were handed out in Washington by a nonprofit consumer group, Center For Science in the Public Interest.

Chrysler, Kraft, and Continental Airlines were among the big-name “winners” of the third annual Harlan Page Hubbard awards. The awards are named after an advertising executive who, in the 1890s, “pioneered the use of false and deceptive advertising techniques on a national scale,” said Bruce Silverglade, a spokesman for the group. Hubbard pitched a product called “Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound,” which was billed as a cure-all for dozens of ailments, he said.

“We’re the one ad awards ceremony where companies never show up to pick up their trophies,” said Silverglade. The trophies show a gold-colored figure grasping a lemon.

Chrysler was cited for an ad campaign that said it produced the “best-built, best-backed” cars in America. This slogan--which the consumer group says is unfounded--came from Chrysler’s own research and not from an independent survey.

Continental Airlines was cited by the group for recent radio spots that feature a mother talking to a daughter who is sick with a cold. The worried mother says she will catch the next “MaxiSaver” Continental flight to nurse her sick daughter back to health. While the commercial takes note of the fact that these low-fare flights require seven days advance notice, Silverglade said, “the ad is really a sham. . . . The daughter could be dead by the time her mother gets there.”

Kraft Inc., was cited by the group for television advertisements for Kraft pasteurized cheese food that claim that “ounce for ounce,” Kraft Singles have four times more calcium then milk. Silverglade says that the use of ounces is a “misleading” measurement for cheese. “You’d have to eat 10 1/2 slices of cheese to get four times the calcium of an 8-ounce glass of milk,” he said.

Spokesmen from all three companies deny that their ads are misleading. But Chrysler and Continental have both pulled the ads. Kraft has pulled the TV ad for Kraft Singles, but the company continues to run a print version of it, a spokesman said.