The American Advertising Awards is the largest and most representative advertising competition. Each year, it attracts more than 40,000 entries in local American Advertising Federation (AAF) competitions, including AAF-DC.

The competition includes both professional and student work, recognizing and rewarding creative excellence in the art of advertising.

There are no new categories this year. Full category lists and explanations of each can be found here:

PROFESSIONAL:

2023 American Advertising Awards PROFESSIONAL Rules & Categories

STUDENT:

2023 American Advertising Awards STUDENT Rules & Categories

Early-Bird Deadline:
Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Standard Deadline:
Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

Professional Awards — SUBMIT NOW

Student Awards — SUBMIT NOW

NO!!! For the third year, all entries and all judging will take place virtually. This shouldn’t mean you wait until the last minute to enter. We all know it takes longer to get entries together than we think.

Please note: This will require you put real consideration into how your work is represented to make sure it comes across as well as possible in the virtual world. We accept jpg, PDF, mp4, mp3, mov, and more file types. If you have any questions, please contact us at addys@aafdc.org.

Absolutely! What's the saying... vote early and vote often? Same is true for submissions.

If you think your work fits more than one category, enter it in multiple. There is a quick way to do this—in the entry portal, click "Add Another Category" and choose the other categories you'd like to submit to. This will keep you from having to enter all of the information again.

Judging will take place the week of January 18-22, 2022. We will notify all entrants that have won a Silver or above that they’ve won. You won’t know until the night of the Gala whether you received Silver, Gold or a Best of ADDY.

The local AAF-DC American Advertising Awards is the first phase of the three-tier competition where agencies, freelancers and students can be recognized as the best in their markets. Local Gold and Silver American Advertising Awards winners move on to compete against winners from other local clubs in one of 15 district competitions. AAF-DC winners compete in the AAF District 2 competition — which includes work from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, DC. — held in March every year.

If you win at the AAF District 2 American Advertising Awards, your work will move on to the AAF National competition held at ADMERICA every year. Entering your work at the local level is your first step toward winning a National American Advertising Award and being recognized among advertising legends.