2013 Golden Trumpets

The Pub­lic­ity Club of Chicago (PCC) hon­ored the city’s most cre­ative and suc­cess­ful PR cam­paigns at its 54th Annual Golden Trum­pet Awards gala tonight. The PCC also hon­ored Christie Hefner, exec­u­tive chair­man of Canyon Ranch Enter­prises, and for­mer chair­man and CEO of Play­boy Enter­prises, Inc. with a Spe­cial Award of Honor, and bestowed Life­time Achieve­ment Awards on two promi­nent com­mu­ni­ca­tions professionals.

“Ms. Hefner pro­vided an inspi­ra­tional keynote address,” said PCC board mem­ber Jon Kaplan, media rela­tions direc­tor at Green­Mark Pub­lic Rela­tions. “Her per­spec­tive on the impor­tance of strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions in build­ing a suc­cess­ful busi­ness was moti­vat­ing for every attendee, whether you were start­ing out in this indus­try or a PR vet­eran.  The attrib­utes she dis­cussed were cer­tainly present in the PR cam­paigns con­ceived and exe­cuted by this year’s Golden Trum­pet winners.”

The cov­eted Golden Trum­pet Awards honor dis­tin­guished indi­vid­ual achieve­ment in the plan­ning, cre­ativ­ity, and exe­cu­tion of pub­lic rela­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tions ini­tia­tives. This year, Chicago pub­lic rela­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­als judged more than 150 entries in 22 cat­e­gories. The PCC Board of Direc­tors also announced the win­ners of its four most pres­ti­gious “best of the best” awards, cho­sen from among this year’s Gold Trum­pet Award winners.

The organization’s top four award win­ners were:

• Plat­inum Award (best over­all PR cam­paign of the year):

“World Sum­mit of Nobel Peace Lau­re­ates” — Jas­culca Ter­man & Asso­ciates, Inc.

• The Ely­nore Dolkart Meserow Cre­ativ­ity Award (for excep­tional cre­ativ­ity): “Path­way to Finan­cial Suc­cess” — Dis­cover Finan­cial Ser­vices and Burson-Marsteller.
• The Edwin J. Shaugh­nessy Qual­ity of Life (for improv­ing the qual­ity of life): “Sav­ing Serengeti by Erad­i­cat­ing Rabies” — Lin­coln Park Zoo.
• The Jef­frey D. Bierig Brand Builder Award (enhanc­ing and pro­mot­ing a brand):  “The Ancona School – The Genius of Chil­dren” — Turner + Cun­niff and The Ancona School.

The PCC hon­ored Dominic DiFrisco, senior con­sul­tant at Edel­man Pub­lic Rela­tions, and Howard Mendel­sohn, pres­i­dent at Howard Mendel­sohn & Com­pany, with its 2013 Life­time Achieve­ment Awards. DiFrisco began his exten­sive pub­lic rela­tions career with Ali­talia in New York, and even­tu­ally moved to Chicago. Today he is a senior con­sul­tant at Edel­man. Mendel­sohn, a for­mer PCC pres­i­dent, vice pres­i­dent, and board mem­ber, started his own com­pany in 1957, doing pub­lic­ity for many celebri­ties who came to Chicago to appear in the­atri­cal shows or other performances.

Adding to the pres­tige of the awards gala were Dina Bair, anchor and med­ical reporter for WGN-TV News, and Vince Gera­sole, gen­eral assign­ment reporter for WBBM-TV CBS 2 Chicago, who served as this year’s co-hosts.

“The Golden Trum­pet is the pre­mier awards pro­gram for Chicagoland com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als,” said Luke Cush­man, PCC pres­i­dent and senior asso­ciate at Burson-Marsteller. “The award rep­re­sents a val­i­da­tion by indus­try peers of the hard work put forth by com­mu­ni­ca­tions prac­ti­tion­ers on a daily basis on behalf of employ­ers and clients.  Tonight’s cel­e­bra­tion was intended to high­light the cre­ativ­ity and break-through pro­grams from our Chicagoland practitioners.”

David Bosch com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor with Gift of Hope Organ & Tis­sue Donor Net­work and a past pres­i­dent of PCC, and Jon Kaplan, served as co-chairs of the 2013 Golden Trum­pet Awards.

“The annual Golden Trum­pet Awards pro­gram allows us to rec­og­nize PR cam­paigns that edu­cate, enter­tain, and inspire. These cam­paigns ‘move the nee­dle’ and get results for the com­pa­nies, clients, prod­ucts and ser­vices they rep­re­sent,” said David Bosch, event co-chair.

“Win­ning a Golden or Sil­ver Trum­pet is the pin­na­cle of recog­ni­tion in the Chicago PR community.”