Students strike gold!

Phil VanBuren and Elliot Nordstrom


Barrett Brynestad, Austin O’Connor, Josie Keeney and Erin Butner


Barrett Brynestad, Austin O’Connor, Josie Keeney and Erin Butner

Two undergraduate Advertising students at the University of Colorado at Boulder's School of Journalism and Mass Communication won the top prize at The One Club's annual One Show College Competition in May, often considered the premier student advertising competition.

Phil VanBuren ('08) and Elliot Nordstrom ('08) won the Gold Pencil prize in the competition's print advertising category for their subtle ad featuring Doritos as the only triangular-shaped snack among rival chips and crackers. VanBuren and Nordstrom's ad campaign titled "There Is Only One" was chosen from more than 350 student entries from around the world. Three CU-Boulder student teams also were named Merit Finalists.

All the student teams were asked to develop advertising campaigns for Doritos, focusing on the unique product attributes of flavor, crunch and triangular shape.

No other traditional four-year university had more winning teams than CU-Boulder, which has also been the case over the past nine years, said Associate Professor David Slayden, head of the Advertising sequence.

"We've come to expect this sort of effort and result from our students," Slayden said. "Creativity is a thread that runs through our entire program from our dean, Paul Voakes, and remarkably talented adjunct professors to our excellent faculty in both the creative and strategic tracks. All of us work hard to drive home the importance of creativity to success in the advertising industry."

All of the work by the Gold Pencil winners and Merit finalists was developed in the portfolio class taught by CU-Boulder Adjunct Instructor Jonathan Schoenberg, a partner and creative director at TDA Advertising and Design in Boulder.

Each year, The One Club holds a competition in which students are asked to create ads for a particular product or service. The student awards show was part of the weeklong One Show Festival to honor outstanding advertising work from around the world created by top professionals and students. The CU students named as Merit finalists were Barrett Brynestad ('08), Erin Butner ('08), Austin O'Connor ('08), Josie Keeney ('08), Krista Mehlbach ('08), Karen Morris ('08), Courtney Pulver ('08), Shannon Sullivan ('08) and Whitney Ward ('07).

For more information about the 2008 One Show competition, visit www.oneclub.org.