Effie n A play on the word effectiveness. The name of a prestigious award in the advertising industry given to the producers of a most effective advertising campaign. Note: Many advertising awards put more weight on an ad's creativity than the ad's performance.

There are ads that the creative folks at advertising agencies love: They look great. And there are ads that the business folks at consumer-products companies love: They sell great. Effie awards celebrate campaigns that are both. And last night's award show confirmed it: Ads can be great-looking and very effective.

Apple Inc. and its Omnicom-owned advertising agency Media Arts Lab/TBWA as well as its media agency OMD took home the Grand Effie Thursday night for its "Get a Mac" campaign depicting the Mac/PC rivalry.

That campaign is believed to increased Apple's market share growth by 42 percent and produced record sales.

This is Apple and TBWA's second Grand Effie in three years. (Only one Grand Effie is awarded annually.) In 2005 TBWA/Chiat/Day and Apple won for their iconic "Silhouettes" campaign for the iPod MP3 player. And in the 27-year history of the Grand Effie award, TBWA agencies have won the most of any agency with 12 wins; 4 with Apple.

"There's just a friendliness to that whole brand that is really infectious. And I think that comes across in the advertising," said John Butler, 2007 Grand Effie Jury Chair and co-executive creative director of Butler, Shine, Stern, and Partners. For the current campaign, "They took a page kind of out of the old Coke and Pepsi wars, but they didn't get mean."

(Full disclosure: Mac advertising has worked on me. I'm writing this piece on a Mac. My home computer is a Mac. I have an aging iPod and I aspire to own both Apple TV and the iPhone.)

By the end of the ceremony -- held at New York City's Metropolitan Pavilion, which was decorated almost entirely in white (similar to Mac's signature color) -- advertising agencies owned by WPP won 27 Effies.

Omnicom Group agencies were close behind with 26, and French-holding company Publicis Groupe took home 20. Agencies not owned by gargantuan holding companies won 24. Publicis' Leo Burnett had 11 wins, the most of any single agency.

Other Grand Effie finalists included the American Express "My Life. My Card." campaign by Ogilvy & Mather and media agency Mindshare; California Milk Processor Board "Got Milk?" by Goodby Silverstein & Partners; Montana Meth Project "Not Even Once" by Venables Bell & Partners and media agency OMD; Pedigree "Pedigree Adoption Drive" by TBWA\Chiat\Day and Grey Interactive; and Philips Norelco "Bodygroom" Tribal DDB, DDB New York, public relations company MS&L and media agency Carat USA.

Butler was also a big fan of the Bodygroom work, where Philips advertised its razor by saying it could add an extra optical inch, if you know what I mean. "They invented a category," he said.

by Willow Duttge