Organizers try to boost sagging image of ad awards. (Media).

THE local advertising industry's annual awards bash was a little different this time around.

The Beldings -- named after Don Belding, the late ad executive known as the "father of West Coast advertising," -- had lost some prestige in recent years. This year, organizers decided to change the way the winners are selected in hopes of returning the show to its former prominence.

The Beldings had become a "weird celebration of super edgy work that may or may not have run for clients you've never heard of by agencies you've never heard of," said one local industry source. "There's an ongoing discrepancy in the industry between the stuff that wins awards and the stuff that gets the job done in the marketplace."

But things have changed since Eric Hirshberg, managing partner and executive creative director at Deutsch L.A., became the Beldings' chairman.

For example, product categories, such as automotive, were dropped and replaced with ones based on medium, including radio, television and outdoor.

Choosing winners by product created "bottlenecks" in some categories, Hirshberg said.

"You had 7,000 entries vying for one award in the automotive category (and) three entries vying for one award in the health care category," he said. "Judges had to leave a lot of the best work out of the show and then strain to find something worthy of winning an award in other categories."

Another change was more senior-level executives were chosen to judge the awards this year. The Beldings, put on by the Advertising Club of Los Angeles, were held Thursday night at the Wiltern Theatre.

The grand prize, or Sweepstakes award, went to Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles for their "Dog" television ad for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc.

Among those taking home a "Belding Bowl" were davi-dandgoliath, Deutsch L.A. Inc., Ground Zero, Rubin Postaer and Associates and TBWA\Chiat\Day.