Creatives Strip for YoungGuns Award Site

Last year’s award recipients took it all off for a new site promoting the YoungGuns International Advertising Award, which recognizes creative accomplishment in the under-30 agency set.

Created by Crispin Porter and Bogusky, the site for the Awards’ Call for Entries campaign is a spoof on the architecture and design used by many porn sites. The Web presence lives at Hardly-Legal.com and features semi-nude shots of creatives who were recognized last year, with their naughty bits covered by pictures of their work.

“I sent out a mass email to everybody that had won the year before,” said Crispin’s Tiffany Kosel, account creative director and the star of a porn spoof video promoting the site. “We gave them our sample comp and said take some pictures of yourself.”

Each creative profiled on the site has a page with a photo gallery, work samples, and bio. Site visitors can get a free tour in which the featured ads are pixilated. Only by registering and getting a password can they gape at the unobscured work.

“Come see some of today’s youngest, hottest creatives bare all of their tightest work!” says the homepage copy. Other site copy promises “REAL photos of under-30 creatives! Images of all their HOTTEST WORK.”

A campaign promoting the site includes online and print ads. Many of the models are former Crispin interns themselves, said Kosel.

“The research for it was interesting,” she said. “This is really what it’s about. ‘I’m young and I’m hot.’ When you get old, you can’t show [off] as much anymore, whether it’s your work or your body.”

The YoungGuns International Advertising Award aims to showcase and recognize the work of young creative talent. Entry is restricted to those under 30. Each year a different agency handles the “Call for Entries” campaign, several of which have been nominated for awards. Hardly-Legal.com is separate from the main YoungGuns site.