SEMO’s SE Creative is up for four ADDY awards

SEMO students and members of SE Creative are up for four different 2023 American Advertising Awards (ADDY) this year.

The awards are described by the American Advertising Federation as a “three-level competition.”

The event in Cape Girardeau is the first or “local” level of the competition.

Winners of the local competition will then face winners from other local level competitions for the district competition phase.

If participants win this level, they are then entered into the third tier, which is known as the “National Stage of the American Advertising Awards.”

Instructor in the department of mass media and SE Creative advisor Michael Simmons said this year the organization made 10 submissions to the awards and have won in four categories at the local level.

“SE Creative is a student-run promotional media firm,” Simmons said. “Students in SE Creative get to work directly with professionals.”

The four winning projects as Simmons said are:

- A logo for a boy scouts golf tournament designed by junior advertising

major Gigi Merideth, the creative director for SE Creative.

- A call-for-entries poster created for the Fault Line Film Festival designed by Ciara Potter.

- A series of three movie posters made for the Fault Line Film Festival

designed by a group of last year's SEMO graduates.

- A self promotion/recruitment piece for SE Creative designed by senior

advertising major and agency director for SE Creative Alisha Reisenbichler and junior advertising/tv film major and director of operations at SE Creative Rachel Westhoff.

An article by Southeast Missouri State University states that students and staff received over a dozen awards at last year’s local competition. They earned bronze, silver and gold awards throughout many categories.

Reisenbichler said they are hoping to keep the winning streak going.

“We have been nominated pretty much every single year,” Reisenbichler said. “We have awards on the wall dating back to 2018, so every year we’ve won at least something.”

The awards will be held live at the Drury Plaza Hotel Cape Girardeau Conference Center on Friday, Feb. 24. It will also feature the live band, Pfunk Dat.

The awards will begin at 6 p.m. and tickets can be purchased online or at the door. Information about tickets and the event can be found on the American Advertising Awards Facebook page.