Hickenlooper ads really take off at awards ceremony By Janet Forgrieve, Rocky Mountain News, March 30, 2006 Kenney Group wins five national honors for TV issue spots As his client was everywhere promoting ballot issues last election season, so was David Kenney's work all over the place at this year's Pollie Awards. Denver's The Kenney Group took five of the honors, bestowed for the past 21 years by the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of Political Consultants. "We were really flattered," said Kenney, whose consulting and communications firm gets about 20 percent of its business from politicians and their issues. "It's nice to be recognized nationally because we're competing with creative firms nationally." Ads included Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper skydiving to illustrate the ups and downs of state budgets in relationship to Referendums C and D, and Hickenlooper again, this time dressed as the big blue bear and booster of a 1 percent hotel tax. Hickenlooper also showed up to narrate an ad aimed at passing Ballot Issue 3A, which established a merit pay system for teachers dubbed ProComp. Awards for ads range from telephone campaigns to print ads to television, radio and Internet spots, said Anthony Bellotti, the organization's acting director of membership and this year's Pollie Awards manager. Bellotti declined to say how many campaigns submitted their work to the bipartisan group, but he did say it was a record year for submissions. Awards follow election cycles, he said. Every other year, judges from the 1,000-plus membership list focus on candidate spots. This year's awards were all about issues, he said. Ads are judged on creativity, but that's only part of the score. "We ask judges to take into consideration the context of the race," Bellotti said. "They look at how politically effective it was and did it meet its goals?" In the case of the Kenney Group's ads, all but one of the winners backed successful ballot initiatives. Referendum D, which would have allowed the state to borrow against future tax collections, was the only Hickenlooper-backed ballot issue that failed. The Kenney Group produced its winners with Rock Obenchain of Denver's Dewey-Obenchain Films Inc., Kenney said. The firm took three bronze awards, including one for the "Bear Dance" spot featuring Hickenlooper at his fuzzy blue best and one silver honor for "Bennet," a 3A ad with Hickenlooper and Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet. And the gold went to "Priorities," a 30-second spot, also in support of 3A and one of two winners not showcasing the mayor. The ad did, however, feature someone else near to Kenney's heart. Daughter Caitlin Kenney, 5, appears, her apple-cheeked face all smiles as she waves encouragingly to voters before heading off to school.