Flush with success.

Sometimes I wonder if some flavors of advertising generally wind up as complete crap mostly because that’s what we expect.

Hard sell chest-pounding (looking at you, trial attorneys). 

Cloying, insulting, and cringey (et tu, Medicare Senior Advantage plans?)

Dumb digital banners the size of postage stamps (attention media departments everywhere).

A whole lot of the tragically performance-driven (people, your metrics are showing).

And, if you asked most of the world, the entire menagerie of political ads, especially that uniquely irritating genre called “public affairs” or “issue advocacy.”

Lately, there's evidence it doesn’t have to be so.

It comes via what might be the best single-media competition left on planet advertising.

It’s called the Radio Mercury Awards and, while an industry creature, it stands proudly upright.

Highly credible judges. Good work always showing up. Heavily populated by top advertisers, agencies, and producers.

Maybe it’s got an unfair advantage: where Cannes, D&AD, the One Show, the Andy’s, and Communications Arts are all fighting multi-front “pick the best of the best” battles, the Mercury judges only have the one thing.

Then again, maybe that only amps up the degree of difficulty.  

After all, this is a medium that’s uniquely present across the arc of our lives — if you never made out in a car with the radio on, you never went to high school. Ergo, submissions have to compete with both the current crop and years of recalled favorites.

Lately, including what’s coming via those distinctly future-forward channels, streamers and podcasts.

All of which leads us thusly: scroll down the list of finalists for this year’s Mercury Awards and you’ll hit on a spot that made the cut in two categories—single :60 and for directing.

It’s comedy.

It tells a story.

It’s got high production values.

And it seems to have measured up to work coming from major brands like Ikea, Tide, Progressive, Amazon, and the like — all big-league creative advertisers.

Did I mention it’s for a nuclear power plant?

But the fact that the “product” isn’t your usual, is less remarkable than where the entry falls along the promotional spectrum — as public affairs.

The bad news: enormous dollars propel these causes; polluting the public arena, reinforcing all the awful vibes and worse impressions.

The good news: better results yield, well, better results. 

As a practical matter, it’s entirely clear that the only way to win hearts and minds in a ridiculously fragmented media environment is for ads to win attention, hold interest, stay relevant, and be, well, interesting.

Not simple, not impossible.  

As long as you have people with the experience to know that expectations for soul-scraping crap don't have to come true.

And the skills to make sure your work doesn’t wind up that way.

Listen and share: www.radiomercuryawards.com/audio2025/14601.mp3