SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 1, 2014) - The San Diego Ad Club presented 151 American Advertising Awards for excellence in 14 advertising, digital and graphic design categories, culled from more than 262 entries, to 31 different advertising and marketing companies at its recent 2014 American Advertising Awards Gala, held on Friday, February 28 at the U.S. Grant Hotel in Downtown San Diego.

Best of Show awards were presented to Piston in the Professional Category, and Lynette Rios from the San Diego Portfolio Studio in the Student Category. Piston was honored for their work for their client, Cars.com and Rios was honored for 'Gold Bond - The End to Odors'. The judges also elected to award two Special Judges Awards to Mark Murphy from Murphy Design for two books: Tim Mantoani, Behind Photographs and the Cartoon Network 20^th Birthday.

"This year's awards clearly demonstrated the extraordinarily high caliber of creative work performed during the past year by advertising and marketing agencies in San Diego," said Tonya Mantooth from Mantooth Studios and 2013/14 San Diego Ad Club president.

The American Advertising Awards program is hosted by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) a national advertising trade organization comprising a membership of more than 200 local advertising clubs, including the San Diego Ad Club. The trophy is affectionately called an ADDY by the industry.

ADDY awards were presented in three different categories, including Gold (1st place), Silver (2nd place) and Bronze (3rd place). Categories included digital and social media, sales promotion, collateral materials, direct marketing, out-of-home advertising, non-traditional advertising, consumer or trade publications, newspaper, interactive media, radio, television (including cinema), mixed media, advertising for the arts and sciences, public service, self-promotion and elements of advertising.

San Diego American Advertising Awards Gold ADDY Award recipients include:

• Piston - Best of Show - 1 Gold - 4 Silver - 5 Bronze

• Murphy Design - 2 Gold - 2 Special Judges Awards - 1 Bronze

• Mantooth Studios/FortyOneTwenty - 1 Gold

• MJD Interactive - 1 Gold - 4 Silver - 1 Bronze

• Mother Sponge - 2 Gold

• Tallgrass Pictures - 1 Gold - 1 Silver - 1 Bronze

• VITRO - 1 Gold

• Wasserman Media Group - 1 Gold - 1 Silver

Additional San Diego American Advertising Award winners include:

• Badami & Associates - 1 Silver - 1 Bronze

• BusinessOnline - 1 Silver - 1 Bronze

• Captura Group - 1 Bronze

• Digital Operative - 2 Silver

• Digitaria - 3 Bronze

• emota - 10 Silver - 11 Bronze

• EPMG - 1 Bronze

• Experiences for Mankind - 1 Silver

• FortyOneTwenty - 6 Silver - 12 Bronze

• Geary LSF - 2 Silver - 1 Bronze

• Greenhaus - 6 Bronze

• i.d.e.a. - 4 Silver - 4 Bronze

• Jacob Tyler - 2 Bronze

• Magnetic Creative - 3 Silver

• MeringCarson - 5 Silver - 7 Bronze

• Mindgruve - 6 Bronze

• Precision Litho - 1 Silver - 4 Bronze

• Red Door Interactive - 1 Bronze

• San Diego Radio Broadcasters Association - 1 Bronze

• San Diego Zoo - 6 Silver - 4 Bronze

• The Best D@mn Copywriter - Bronze

• Tracy Meiners / David Fried - 1 Bronze

• Traina Design - 5 Silver - 3 Bronze

• United Way of San Diego - 2 Bronze

• Voices for Children - 2 Bronze