• by Kelly Samardak , September 24, 2008

Stars of Madison Avenue Luncheon, Nokia Theatre, New York
September 22, 2008

It's Wednesday and I'm only now writing about an Advertising Week event.  Think of it this way, when you're bored and suddenly in charge of you own life and schedule, suddenly this column will hit your inbox/browser and you'll say "oh my gosh, I nearly forgot about that incident."  See, I do it for you.   I also went to the Stars of Madison lunch at Nokia Theatre to see if stars can sparkle around noon.

The Stars of Madison Avenue kicked off Advertising Week for me.  Plopped in the middle of Times Square, the Nokia Theatre made me feel like I was part of something huge in this town.  The digital marquee blinked and glowed with the Advertising Week logo alongside that of The Advertising Club.  I had a feeling there would be a good turnout due to cocktails starting at 11:30 a.m., the included lunch, and the fact that the honoree was such a great cause, a good heartstring-yanker: UNICEF, specifically the TAP Project created by David Droga.  I was ready to hear some juicy tidbits from the creative genius behind such a moving campaign while stuffing my face.

But, first -- the cocktail scene.  I know I sound like a broken record, but cocktails at 11:30 in the morning blow my mind.  Especially on a Monday.  But really, I can't think of a better day than Monday to do it.   I won't out any early morning responsible drinkers, but the crowd weaving around the bar trading business cards was a lively one.   Of course the Advertising Age contingent was there, including Alison Arden, Vice President and Publisher, who was deep in conversation with the neckscarf-sporting Mari Kim Novak of Microsoft.   Lurking nearby was the pot-stirring Jeremy Greenfield, blogger at PostAdvertising.com, who was no doubt sharing his life story with Heather Mann, Director of East Coast Sales at Beliefnet, and Anne Marie Lisuzzo, Director, Ad Sales Marketing, Fox Digital Media/Beliefnet.

I should also point out (before we continue with the name-dropping game here) that once the elevator transported me downstairs, I forgot what time it was.  The deep electric blue, neon pink, and warm amber lighting illuminating the cavelike darkness that is the Nokia Theatre was a lot like Vegas but without the strippers (that I know of).  Disorienting is what it was.  The fact that I've seen Disturbed at Nokia and was now surrounded by heavy hitting agencies, publishers, and do-gooders, was jarring as well. 

Speaking of do-gooders, I ran into Patricia Alonzo, ANDY Coordinator, The AD Club, who was so fresh to her job she didn't yet have business cards.  She was hanging out with Ninart Lui, Editor, TAXI Design Network, who the AD Club recently struck up a partnership with.  Maria Choi, Marketing Officer, United States fund (USF) for UNICEF, held down a tall table with Julia Albu, Account Manager at Droga 5, and David Pollard of BBDO.  Very appropriately, one of the tallest fellows in the room was William Moran, Vice President, National Advertising, Hercules Networks.  Watch out for the guy because Hercules Networks is about to launch (or recently soft-launched) their magical kiosks of recharging wonderfulness.

The presentation portion was educational, for sure -- I learned that the new UNICEF slogan is "Whatever it takes to save a child" and that the TAP project is an EASY way for people who don't really think about others' welfare and sustainable lives to participate - to do good.  Love love love the TAP project's tie-in with restaurants.  It's this easy: during World Water Week, March 22-28, when you dine at a participating restaurant and drink your free water, why not pay $1 for you water?  With that dollar, UNICEF can provide clean and safe drinking water to 40 children for a day.  It's small and it's sad, but it's easy and even the most coal-hearted cad can do it.

Drinking my free water and poking at the mysterious red blob on my table, which my table coined "the mystery meat" because it wasn't meat at all, followed by my stuffed chicken surrounded by vegetables that weren't tainted by dirty water, I felt like a jerk.  And I looked around and saw beautiful suits and jewels and blown-out hair and hoped that guests were at least moved to consider the disparity between us at these beautifully set tables and the people on the big screens (not Salma Hayek) who can't afford vaccines and are drinking out of muddy holes in the ground.  Although a bit redundant in their message, the panel on the dais got their point across, and I headed out of the Nokia cave into the cornea-crushing lights of middle Manhattan -- off into Advertising Week.

See who else showed up for lunch in the Flickr photo set!

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