Trying to find source material seemed to be a major problem for those involved in Marketing magazine's Ads of the Century awards, as there is no national advertising archive as yet. Still, there were enough fond memories to keep the crowd gathered at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre on Wednesday night, amused for quite a while.
Among those speculating on the possible winners were Adrian Keogh of Irish Distillers; Nicky Boylan of IPM and Clara O'Callaghan and Eithne Ryan, of Carlton Screen Advertising.
Before long, the winners were announced via a live link-up to TV3 news and Ian Dempsey revealed that the ultimate winner was the Guinness "Island" commercial which was created by Arks Advertising 22 years ago. The editor of Marketing magazine, Michael Cullen, who handed over the award to Steve Langan on behalf of Guinness, paid homage to Arks and to the director of the commercial, John Davis who was in the crowd. Others who received awards were David Courtney of Aer Lingus, John Keogh of Showerings, and Tom Shipsey of National Wholesale.