• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, March 4, 2010

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association has handed its annual Racie Awards for TV to Walmart and Sears, with a clever radio spot for Ehrlich Pest Control winning its prestigious "Best of the Best" award.

Walmart took top honors for "Christmas Wish," its single fourth-quarter TV spot featuring snow sprinkling on a group of Marines in Iraq. And Sears won for its third-quarter spot, "Cold Feet," featuring Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre trying to make a decision on a TV purchase.

Other award winners, generated by a live vote during RAMA's Innovation & Marketing Conference in San Francisco, include Ralph Lauren in the digital motion category; JCPenney for outdoor (in preparation for the launch of its Manhattan store launch) and the Home Depot for its gift card campaign.

In addition to the live-vote awards, the trade group -- a division of the National Retail Federation -- also handed out Gold Awards for excellence in advertising and marketing to JC Penney for its website experience, the comical "Back to the Doghouse" effort, coaching men on how to buy presents for their wives, and to Sears for the best integrated media campaign, for its back-to-school efforts.

Other winner's include British furniture chain Heal's, for its international work; Art Van Furniture, for best direct mail campaign by a small retailer, with Shanghai Tang winning among larger companies. Mobile service ShopAlerts won a Gold for best mobile/apps, and Best Buy got one for Innovation, for its "Amplify the Music Inside" social marketing effort, aimed at musicians.

Sears also received the Peter Glen Award, a community service honor, for its Heroes at Home effort. The program, designed to help active soldiers and veterans, makes repairs and modifications to the homes of wounded soldiers. It also encourages soldiers to create an online wish registry over the holiday season, which collected $8 million in donations.