1,000 will celebrate the best in commercials

Even the rocky economy can’t stop a good show and a great party as attested by the tide of RSVPs to the Nov. 20 17th Annual Midwest AICP Show honoring the uber best of the best in American commercials.

One thousand guests attired in creative black tie plan to attend at the Chicago History Museum for the year-end soiree.

This is the same number of attendees as last year, indicating how the AICP Show is the place to celebrate a year in advertising, regardless of how good, so-so or we’re-not-talking as it may have been.

Sponsors know a good thing when they see it, too. Forty-three sponsors was a first, a record high for the Show, says sponsoring coordinator Lisa Masseur of Radar.

Of the 54 commercials spots on the reel (in 23 different categories), 16 honors – the most of the show – were won by bi-coastal production company MJZ. Gorgeous Enterprises won four honors and Smuggler and Anonymous Content each earned three.

Four Chicago commercials made it into the heavily New York-L.A.-dominated reel as determined by 300 international judges: DDB/Bud, Element 79/Gatorade, Y&R/SOS and Venable Bell (Outsider).