AAF Silver Medal Award

AAF’s highest honor in the industry

The Silver Medal Award was created by the American Advertising Federation to recognize men and women who have made outstanding contributions to advertising and who have been active in furthering the industry’s standards, creative excellence, and responsibility in areas of social concern.

What makes a silver medal award winner?

Nominations are accepted annually, with recipients being recognized in the Spring. The American Advertising Federation has set criteria for the AAFFW Silver Medal Award. A selected jury uses these guidelines to review nominees and decide who will win:

• Contributions to his/her company: The winner must have achieved success in one of the following areas of work: advertising agency, advertiser, media, or advertising service company.

• Creative ability: The winner should have shown a consistent, high degree of creative, original thinking in whatever phase of advertising this person has worked.

• Contributions to the general advancement of advertising: The Award winner will have worked to increase the stature and raise the standards of the advertising profession.

• Contributions to the community: The recipient should be a man or woman who has been active in civic, religious or other groups dedicated to some phase of human or social welfare.

Past Silver Medal Recipients

1962
LOUIS W. BONSIB
Chairman of the Board
Bonsib, Centilivre, Knight & Ferguson

1963
LOUIS E. WADE
Chairman of the Board
Lauer, Etzler & Wade, Inc.

1964
JOHN P. WHITE
Director, Marketing & Advertising
Lincoln National Life Insurance Company

1965
WILLIS S. MARTIN
Chairman of the Board
Martin-Evans, Inc.

1966
LAVERN E. GELOW
Director of Advertising & Sales Promotion
Peter Eckrich & Sons, Inc.

1967
CHESTER F. LEOPOLD
Advertising Manager
Wolf & Dessauer

1968
No Award Given

1969
MERRILL “BAN” JOHNSON
Vice President–General Manager
WGL

1970
WARREN W. WIDENHOFER
Public Affairs Director
Indiana & Michigan Electric Company

1971
REID G. CHAPMAN
Vice President–General Manager
WANE-TV

1972
HAROLD D. COTHRELL
Retired
Fort Wayne National Bank

1973
HILLIARD GATES
Vice President–General Manager
WKJG-TV

1974
CARL W. VANDAGRIFT
Vice President–General Manager
WOWO

1975
RICHARD M. KATT
Director of Marketing
Azar’s Restaurants, Inc.

1976
DOUGLAS HADLEY
Owner
Hadley House Advertising

1977
ARTHUR E. SINGLETON
President
Prentice Products Corporation

1978
OSWALD F. FERBER
President
Suedoff & Ferber, Inc.

1979
JAY GOULD
Consultant
WOWO

1980
ANN L. COLONE
Promotion Manager
WANE-TV

1981
EDWIN C. METCALFE
President & General Manager
WPTA-TV

1982
GEORGE H. KINNE
President | George H. Kinne, Advertising & Public Relations

1983
W. LOUISE RENNECKER
Community Affairs Manager
General Telephone Company of IN, Inc.

1984
HELEN R. FOELLINGER
Retired — Chairman of the Board
Fort Wayne Newspapers

1985
KEDRIC J. CHANEY
President
Precision Litho, Inc.

1986
No Award Given

1987
ROBERT H. KLOPFENSTEIN
Retired — President
O’Toole Advertising

1988
RICHARD J. FERGUSON
President
Ferguson Advertising, Inc.

1989
RICHARD E. BONSIB
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Bonsib, Inc. Marketing Services

1990
GEORGE N. NITECKI
Vice President / Creative Director
Nitecki, Smith & Walker, Inc.

1991
No Award Given

1992
MARVIN GOTTLIEB
General Sales Manager
WKJG-TV

1993
EVELYN HAUSMAN
Retired — Assistant Vice President of Advertising & Public Relations
Fort Wayne National Bank

1994
EUGENE A. YERGENS
Retired — Local Sales Manager
WKJG-TV

1995
No Award Given

1996
R. BRUCE CYNAR
General Sales Manager
WANE-TV

1997
ROGER W. DIEHM
Assistant General Sales Manager
105-FM Radio

1998
NANCY J. WRIGHT
Vice President / Creative Director
Ferguson Advertising, Inc.

1999
No Award Given

2000
BETH A. MILLER
President
HPN, Inc. Marketing Services

2001
ERIC JOHNSON
General Manager
Ad Lab Advertising and Marketing Services, Inc.

2002
No Award Given

2003
RONNIE L. SMOOTS
Retired
Markey’s Audio Visual

2004
JOHN F. BONSIB
Retired
Page Alert, Inc.

2005
No Award Given

2006
JAMES J. GOHEEN
Sales and Marketing Executive
WANE-TV

2007
ALAN NAUTS
Program Director for Communication Arts & Graphic Design
University of Saint Francis

2008
THOMAS J. BLEE
Retired
Burt, Blee, Dixon, Sutton & Bloom

2009
JAMES ETZLER

2010
TIMOTHY BORNE
CEO
Asher Agency, Inc.

2011
CRAIG DELLINGER
President

2012
ALAN RIEBE
General Manager
WANE-TV

2013
No Award Given

2014
THOMAS BORNE
President
Asher Agency, Inc.

2014
MELISSA DUNNING
Marketing Director
Aunt Millie’s Bakeries

2015
BARRY LABOV
President and CEO
LABOV and Beyond

2016
LARRY WARDLAW
Vice President of Account Services
Asher Agency, Inc.

2017
JEFF and SUE BRITTON
Principals
Britton Marketing and Design Group

2018
No Award Given

2019
TOM ANTISDEL
VP and General Manager
WANE-TV

2020
No Award Given

2021
TROIS HART
The City of Fort Wayne

2022
JILL BROWN
Senior Vice President & Director of Media
Asher Agency

2023
CATHY EDWARDS
Corporate Development Director
WFWA

2024
No Award Given

2025
No Award Given

2026
TBD