The CLIO Awards Announces Jerry Seinfeld as 2014 Honorary Award Winner

By: BWW News Desk Aug. 20, 2014

The CLIO Awards, an international competition showcasing the work of industry giants in advertising, design and communications, today announces Jerry Seinfeld as its 2014 Honorary Award winner, recognized for pushing the boundaries of creativity and his longstanding contributions. The comedian, producer and forever New Yorker will receive his award at the 55(th) annual ceremony. The event, coinciding with Advertising Week, will take place on October 1 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

For the first time, CLIO Music (an extension of the CLIO brand focusing on creative excellence exclusively in music marketing and advertising) will also present an honorary award. Iconic band Blondie, bona fide international ambassadors of New York cool, will be recognized for their inspiring catalogue of work during the ceremony.

"This year's honorary winners truly embody the creative spirit that CLIO strives to represent. They're icons with decades of famed work who continue to inspire," says CLIO Executive Vice President Nicole Purcell. "Jerry Seinfeld's critically-acclaimed web series, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, has broken new ground for the website Crackle and shows the power of high-quality artistic content."

Entertainment icon Jerry Seinfeld's work exemplifies inventive thinking. His comedy career took off after his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1981. Eight years later, he teamed up with fellow comedian Larry David to create what was to become the most successful comedy series in the history of television: Seinfeld. The show ran on NBC for nine seasons, winning numerous Emmy, Golden Globe and People's Choice awards. Since then, he starred in, wrote and produced movies (Comedian, Bee Movie); directed and produced a Broadway hit (Colin Quinn Long Story Short); and wrote a best-selling book (Seinlanguage) and children's book (Halloween).

His latest project, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, has put him on the map once again. Seen exclusively on Crackle andcomediansincarsgettingcoffee.com, the series has garnered more than 10 million views and received rave reviews, with the New York Times calling it "impressively complex and artful."

"The 2014 CLIO Awards will be made even more exciting with the addition of CLIO Music," Purcell says. "Blondie's recent tour celebrating 40 incredible years of performing and the frequent use of their music in commercials demonstrates the band's enduring appeal for music lovers and marketers alike."

Not to be outdone, for the last four decades Blondie's influence has not only shaped but continues to inform the worlds of music, fashion and art. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein have kept their ears to the ground, creating trends, never following them. They helped push punk onto the dance floor at the dawn of the new wave era and introduced a wider audience to hip-hop sounds, all the while building a catalog of enduring pop hits.

Their instincts, attitude and style are just as sharp today, coming off of their 40(th) anniversary celebration. Blondie's most recent two-disc package of music released in May 2013 included Blondie 4(0) Ever, a greatest hits album saluting their storied past and a new project, Ghosts Of Download, a 10(th) studio album, recorded almost immediately following the completion of the acclaimed 2011 album, Panic Of Girls. Blondie's impact is greater than the sum of their record sales: Harry's persona, and the band's boundary-pushing pop, has shaped the look and sound of many chart-topping artists who followed in the last three decades. Through his acclaimed photography, Blondie co-founder and guitarist Chris Stein intimately and inimitably captured these past 40 years. On September 23, Stein will release a electric and stunningly beautifully rendered new coffee-table book of his photography and anecdotes entitled Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk on Rizzoli.

CLIO Music has a media partner in Billboard Magazine, the leading international source for news, trends and innovations in music. The new program recognizes work that demonstrates ahead-of-the-curve thinking in music, including artist self-promotion, music marketing and brand collaborations, as well as the use of music in advertising campaigns.

For more information on the upcoming CLIO Awards, visit: http://www.clioawards.com.

About The CLIO Awards
The CLIO Awards is one of the world's most recognized awards competitions for advertising, design and communications. The CLIO Awards has maintained its original commitment to celebrate and reward creative excellence, honoring a powerful form of communication and its impact on modern culture. At the same time, the CLIO Awards remains focused on evolving with the industry in order to acknowledge the most current, breakthrough work. To this day, CLIO's iconic statue is the most widely recognized and coveted symbol of the industry's creative accomplishments.

CLIO Mission
Our mission is to honor the groundbreaking work and talent that push the boundaries of creativity. Everything we do is fueled by our passion for celebrating the power of creativity, provoking action and nurturing your vision. As the standard bearer for visionary communications, we award those creators whose work exemplifies inventive thinking. Celebrating Inspiration. Honoring Imagination. Fostering Creativity. This is the very essence of the CLIO Awards.

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