St. Francis, Rust Communications receive ADDY awards

Record 179 entries for print and electronic advertising

Business Today

St. Francis Medical Center, The Wright Group and Rust Communications won Best of Show awards at the ninth annual Tri-State Advertising and Marketing Professionals ADDY Awards dinner in Cape Girardeau in mid-February.

St. Francis Medical Center won Electronic Best of Show for its "Women's Heart Advantage" 30-second television spot. The Wright Group advertising agency in Pinckneyville, Ill., won Print Best of Show for its self-promotion. Rust Communications captured the Mixed Media Campaign Best of Show for its "Faces and Places -- Experience Cape Girardeau" advertising campaign. Rust Communications owns the Southeast Missourian.

More than 130 people, representing advertising and media businesses from the Cape Girardeau, Paducah, Ky., and Harrisburg, Ill., markets attended the awards dinner at the Drury Lodge.

The awards recognized advertising work done in 2003.

The competition garnered a record 179 entries for print and electronic advertising, said Chuck Moffitt, president of the Tri-State Advertising and Marketing Professionals organization.

Besides the Best of Show awards, the group presented eight ADDY of Distinction awards, 18 ADDY awards and 35 citations of excellence.

Entries were judged based on creativity, originality and creative strategy.

Moffitt announced the organization plans to establish advertising and marketing scholarships at Southeast Missouri State University, Murray State University in Kentucky and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

The ADDY Awards is a three-tiered national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation.