(The following article appeared on Adweek.com.)
CHICAGO–Bailey Lauerman’s advertising campaign for the Union Pacific Railroad won Best of Show this weekend at the annual Nebraska Addy Awards banquet.
The commercials are narrated by actor Sam Elliott (news), whose gravelly baritone tells in one spot shot against the magnificent vistas of Moab, Utah, how the railroad is made up of “33,000 miles of timber and steel.” The ads end with the tagline, “Union Pacific. Building America.”
Print executions show pictures of the railroad line stretched across the Western U.S. Accompanying copy states, “The ties that bind a nation” and “Thinking outside of the boxcar.”
Union Pacific, headquartered in Omaha, Neb., spent $9 million through October 2002 on media expenditures, according to CMR.
The Lincoln, Neb., shop took home the most gold Addys, with 49, followed by Archrival, also in Lincoln, which won seven, an agency representative said.
Five senior advertising executives representing agencies from Fort Worth, Texas; Seattle; Billings, Mont.; and Highlands Ranch, Colo., reviewed 1,140 entries for the competition.
The Nebraska contest is among the first in a three-tiered national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation.