• June 9, 2004

DDB Chicago won its third Radio-Mercury Grand Prize Award with "Genius/Mr. Way Too Much Cologne Wearer," a spot developed for the Anheuser-Busch Bud Light brand. Creators of the best Radio commercials were honored yesterday as the Radio industry awarded over $150,000 in cash prizes during the 2004 Radio-Mercury Awards luncheon and ceremony held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. This is the third time DDB Chicago captured the top Mercury Prize, having won the Radio creative award in 2000 and 2001 with Radio commercials developed for the same client and brand. The Vidal Partnership follows their 2003 win of $5,000 in the Spanish-Language Category by garnering that prize again this year for "Gritos," a Heineken USA/Heineken spot. Conversely, this year's competition also saw several first-time winners. Anson-Stoner (Florida Department of Health/Quitline), Barkley Evergreen & Partners (Sonic Drive-In) and Campbell-Ewald (OnStar) each won their first $5,000 General Category Radio-Mercury Award. The other six General Category Award winners were Crispin Porter + Bogusky (Telluride), last year's Grand Prize Winning agency DeVito/Verdi (Mount Sinai), Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (Saturn/ION), Lowe, NY (Unilever HPC/Snuggle Sunkissed Breeze), The Richards Group (Motel 6) and Y&R Chicago (Miller/Miller Lite). The $5,000 Station-Produced Category Winner in 2004 was KHTR/KQQQ, Pullman, WA.