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The Clio Awards are given to reward creative excellence in advertising and design. They are awarded in a number of fields, including: TV, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Integrated Campaign, Innovative Media, Design, Internet, Content & Contact, and Student work.

The awards are named for the Greek Muse of history Clio and were first given in 1959. They were expanded to include international work in 1965. The 1991 ceremony was plagued by scandal. The scheduled presenter failed to appear and two impromptu presenters struggled to carry out the show—a task that was made all the more difficult by the lack of a winners list. Following this, a group of investors headed by Chicago publisher Ruth Ratny reorganized the awards program, and eventually sold it to Dutch-owned company VNU, which in 2007 changed its name to Nielsen and is the Clio's parent company to this day.

Clio is one of the largest awards programs of its kind. Their official press release indicates that in 2007 they received over 19,000 entries from all over the world, and over 110 judges from 62 countries comprised the jury.

The judges are instructed to value ideas more highly than mere execution as they look at all entries submitted and select a shortlist. From that, they vote to award the very best work with statues—bronze, silver or gold. The Clio judging process allows for more than one Gold, Silver or Bronze winner, or in some cases, no winner at all, within individual mediums (TV, Print, etc.). If judges determine a Gold winner is “best-of-the-best” in the medium, the Grand Clio may be given to that entry. Only 1% of all entries receive awards, which are given at two separate award shows during a four day Clio Festival in South Beach, Miami, Florida in May.

In order to be eligible for the 1984 Clio Awards, Chiat/Day ran Apple Computer's 1984 commercial for the Macintosh computer prior to Super Bowl XVIII. In December 1983, they purchased time on KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho after their normal sign-off and recorded the broadcast in order to qualify. ^[1]

PATRICK FERRARA- EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT / INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR, CLIO AWARDS 1974 -1981

Through Patrick Ferrara's efforts , The CLIO Awards which honors advertising creative excellence was built into the largest and most prestigious advertising award worldwide. Upon joining the CLIO Awards Patrick set up a network of representatives in 54 countries helping to solicite entries and Clio services, allowing entries to be judged by the world's most creative adverting professionals and after the initial New York CLIO Award Ceremonies, produced presentions and exhibitions of each years winners throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, NZ and Africa. He traveled extensively meeting with almost every advertising community on six continents. In 1978 he opend the CLIO Award office in Los Angeles to encourage more entries from the West Coast ad communities of the United States and that of the many production companies based there. Im 1980 and 1981 he produced the Clio awards ceremony in Los Angeles simultaniously with that of The New York Ceremonies. Also in 1980 and 1981 Clio held its first awards ceremonies outside the United States, Brussels 1980 and Amsterdam, 1981, all proving quite successful. Patrick also instituted the CLIO Award for packaging design. Patrick's favorite part of his job was producing and designing the opening credit Film which opened each year's award ceremony. His first in 1974 garnered a standing ovation, He won awards for these creative efforts and in June of 1981, the year of his departure he increased the number of entries from a 4,400 to over 35,000 entries from the US and from 45 countries during his tenure. Patrick Ferrara resigned his post in 1981 to presued a career in TV Commercial Production, starting out in Vancouver, BC and then on to New York. From 1982 through 1996 Patrick Ferrara had represented and produced for many of the world's top TV Commercial Directors. In 1986 the CLIO Awards had asked him to take over as President. He accepted but realized quickly you cant go back and continued his career in advertising. He also was offered the position Executive Producer and then Head of Production for Muller Jordan Weiss Advertising in New York, St. Louis and Toronto. Patrick Ferrara is now retired and lives in the Hudson Valley in New York. When speaking to him, he conveys how proud he is of his efforts for The Clio Awards and how greatful he was to Bill Evans, owner of The Clio awards organization for giving him the opportunity of a lifetime, and expresses how sad he is to see what has come of them.' Patrick was truely The CLIO Award's Ambassador to The World of Advertising.== External links ==

• Clio Awards official website
• The Most Bizarre Evening in Advertising History First-hand account of the 1991 Clio Awards.
• An online Clio Awards Exhibit
• 2006 Clios Award Winner Video

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