WELCOME TO MY FAVORITE PRO BONO WORK EVER

Problem: Despite much effort, diversity (racism, ageism, sexism, all 14 people of the LGBTQ-BIPOC community) still remains an issue in the advertising/design industry (see: straight white boy’s club.) Many prestigious awards shows cost quite the arm & leg to enter. What’s a non-bro to do to get ahead in the ad game?

Solution: Josh Weiss and I created the Side Show Awards: The first awards show celebrating the side projects of creatives in advertising and media. Plus we gave the best ticket price ever: FREE.

Result: We pulled in a grand total of 60 judges (CCO’s, ECDs, CDs, and more) from TBWA/Chiat, Mother, The Duplass Brothers, Jeff Greenspan, Michael Dubin, Weiden+Kennedy to evaluate (and gawk) at our our non-profit awards showcase. The Side Show Awards was shouted out in Adweek three times as one of the most uplifting projects during pandemic. AgencySpy mentioned us without any condescending quips. Sunita’s mom smiled.

Our favorite part: Creative folks facing racial, sexual, and other micro-aggressions in agency environments entered and got massive response including interviews and jobs based on their side projects. We are up at again on 9/5/23 with a new website you can enter all year long. And yes, we haven’t made a dime off this. But it sure is easier to sleep at night knowing you used your ad skills to create something good.