The Tracy Awards

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The Tracy Awards is an annual awards show that recognizes the worst advertising in the United States. Started in 2009 by Crowell Advertising – a Salt Lake City-based advertising agency – The Tracy Awards takes its name from Crowell Advertising founder and president, Tracy Crowell.

The official logo of The Tracy Awards.

History

The creators of The Tracy Awards are a group of highly-awarded advertising designers, writers, and producers at Crowell Advertising who felt that there were far too many self-congratulatory awards shows in the advertising industry and zero awards shows that ridiculed advertising professionals and corporate marketing directors for creating bad advertising.

In 2009, twelve Tracy Awards were given to twelve different companies:

Oreo "Double-Stuf Racing League" TV Ad

Won For: Best reckless waste of expensive talent.

Microsoft "Family Guy / Windows 7" TV Ad

Won For: Best use of cross-promotion to single-handedly destroy comedy forever.

Bear River Mutual Insurance Company "Values" Radio Ad

Won For: Best use of a jingle to justify [...].

Questar Gas "Talk Show" TV Ad

Won For: Best use of writing and direction to suck the remaining life out of what was already a horrible concept.

Snickers "Snickers Speak" Print Campaign

Won For: Best high-profile fall from grace.

Basil Hayden Whiskey "Good Luck" Print Ad

Won For: Best use of incomprehensible pretentiousness in a print ad.

Coors Light "Post-Game Coach Interviews" TV Campaign

Won For: Best use of a dead horse to beat another dead horse while jumping the shark.

Yahoo! "Lose Weight" Banner Ad

Won For: Best use of unintentionally effective stock photography.

Utah Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities "Don't 'dis' ability" Billboard

Won For: Best cavalier perversion of the English language in a PSA.

Wasatch/Squatters Beers "Feel The Strength" TV Ad

Won For: Best mixed-metaphor disguised as a clever concept.

Red Robin "Serving Simulator" TV Ad

Won For: Best use of a terrible commercial to remind us why no one eats at your restaurant.

Rocky Mountain Power "Lethal Hands" Print Ad

Won For: Best use of condescension to illustrate an already painfully obvious point.

The Awarding Process

Several months before The Tracy Awards are given out, the public at large begins uploading “bad ads” to the official website of The Tracy Awards, thetracyawards.com. There is no set criteria of what makes an advertisement bad. That is left to the discretion of individual submitters, who, during the brief online submission process, have the option to explain why they believe the ad or ads they’re submitting are in fact, bad.

Submitted ads can be from any advertising medium possible (television ads, radio ads, print ads, websites, web banners, billboards, etc.). To date, most ads submitted have been television ads due to the ease of finding and uploading ads from websites such as YouTube and/or corporate websites that showcase their company’s television ads. However, a large number of submitted ads have come from photos taken with camera phones – as this is an easy way for the public to photograph a billboard, a print ad, a busboard, etc. and upload it to The Tracys website in jpeg form.

Nearly all submitted ads are from members of the public who had absolutely no involvement or connection to creating the ad or ads they’re submitting, but occasionally, an ad will be submitted by someone who was entirely or partially responsible for creating the bad ad.

During the submission stage, a panel of “pre-judges” select several dozen ads deemed potentially “Tracy-Worthy” and showcase them on the Tracy Awards website in the “Cream of the Crap” section. Visitors to the website can then rate the ads featured in Cream of the Crap and leave comments.

Once the submission stage has ended, the judging stage begins with a secret panel of advertising professionals culling ads from the Cream of the Crap section for consideration as a Tracy Award Winner. There are no set categories for The Tracy Awards and there is no specific number of Tracy Awards to be awarded. The categories and number of awards vary from year to year.

Once the panel of judges has decided which submitted ads are bad enough to win a Tracy Award, a cheap, tacky, plastic trophy is sent to the marketing director of the company that created the ad. Advertising agencies who may represent these companies are not sent the award, as it is believed that the companies’ marketing directors are ultimately responsible. Typically, the marketing directors who receive a Tracy Award are not happy about receiving it.