May 6, 2011 – This month, the CLIO Awards will celebrate its 52nd year with an exciting announcement unifying the normally übercompetitive ad industry: eleven of the world’s top creative executives have agreed to unite as advisers for Stand Up To Cancer, helping to recruit creative talent for projects that support the cancer-research initiative co-founded by Katie Couric.

This CLIO Awards Dream Team will use the Awards Show on May 19 as a stage to announce their collaboration. The creatives hail from top agencies, including BBDO, Ogilvy, Hill & Knowlton, Mother and Y&R (see the complete list below), and will use their combined powers of creativity-and their vast networks-to help SU2C and support their efforts. They will volunteer their own time and have the option to get their agencies involved in the cause.

Stand Up To Cancer (standup2cancer.org)is an initiative created to accelerate groundbreaking cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. SU2C’s goal is to assemble the best and brightest in the cancer community, encouraging collaboration instead of competition.

“Just as SU2C brings together leaders in cancer research, the CLIO Awards has created a group of the world’s top creative executives who will up our visibility factor, helping communicate that each and every one of us can play a role in helping to end cancer,” said Katie Couric, SU2C co-founder.

Introducing the CLIO Awards Dream Team:

• Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer, Ogilvy North America
• Jay Benjamin, executive creative director/EVP, Leo Burnett, NY
• Nicke Bergström, creative director, Mother New York
• Tony Granger, global chief creative officer, Y&R
• Linus Karlsson, chairman, chief creative officer, McCann Erickson NY & London
• Michael Lebowitz, founder and CEO, Big Spaceship
• David Lubars, chairman/chief creative officer, BBDO North America
• Guy Mastrion, chief global creative officer, Palio
• Hugh McGilligan, U.S. director of brand planning, Hill & Knowlton
• Bruce Rooke, chief creative officer, GSW Worldwide
• Michael Schreiber, managing partner, executive creative director, AgencyRx
• Faris Yakob, chief innovation officer, MDC Partners

“Stand Up To Cancer is first and foremost a populist movement,” said Laura Ziskin, SU2C co-founder and Executive Producer of the landmark 2008 and 2010 Stand Up To Cancer fundraising broadcasts. “Everything that we have accomplished so far is the result of people of all backgrounds and from all communities standing up with us, and the ability to engage the public through creative means is critical to sustaining our movement. We are thrilled and honored to have the collective brainpower of these agencies to guide us in building public commitment to the fight against cancer.”

The CLIO Awards is one of the world’s most recognized awards competition for advertising, design and interactive. On Thursday, May 19, advertising, communications and design communities from around the world will flock to New York City for the industry’s annual creative pilgrimage, which the fabulously dry Lewis Black will host. It will be a day and night of celebrating the art and ingenuity of the media world and a chance to gather and honor the most imaginative voices of 2010. The CLIO Conference will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Essex House on Central Park South and will include a luncheon showcasing the gold CLIO winners. The formal evening celebration begins at 6:30 P.M. at the American Museum of Natural History, followed by the after-party bash, which will last until 11:30 P.M.

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.

About Stand Up To Cancer

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) – a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization – raises funds to hasten the pace of groundbreaking translational research that can get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives. In the fall of 2007, a group of women who have been profoundly affected by cancer began working together to marshal the resources of the media and entertainment industries in the fight against it. The Executive Leadership Council of SU2C, which was formally launched on May 27, 2008, includes: Laura Ziskin, executive producer of the 2008 and 2010 SU2C telecasts, who is a cancer survivor; Sherry Lansing, chairperson of the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s (EIF) Board of Directors and founder of the Sherry Lansing Foundation; EIF President and CEO Lisa Paulsen; Katie Couric; EIF Senior Vice President Kathleen Lobb; Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz of the Robertson Schwartz Agency; Pam Williams, partner at Laura Ziskin Productions; and nonprofit executive Ellen Ziffren. To learn more, visit www.standup2cancer.org.

About Prometheus Global Media

Prometheus Global Media engages people and marketers at the intersection of culture’s most powerful forces-music, media and entertainment. This connectivity makes Prometheus a potent catalyst in influencing popular culture. Its leading assets include music (Billboard and its related conferences and events, including the Billboard Music Awards), entertainment (The Hollywood Reporter, Backstage, ShowEast, Cineasia and CineEurope), and advertising and marketing (Adweek, Adweek Conferences and the CLIO Awards).

Media Contact

Alex Covington
Euro RSCG Worldwide PR
(212) 367-6843
alexandra.covington@eurorscg.com