West Hollywood Launches Billboard Oscars.

Too bad the Marlboro Man didn't hang around long enough to get his due. He might have been a contender in the latest awards event to come to Los Angeles.

The Sunset Strip Billboard Awards is being launched to honor the masterminds behind those jumbo-sized placards along the 1.6-mile stretch through West Hollywood that is second only to New York's Times Square as the nation's premier billboard mecca.

The awards event, to be held July 13, is the Brainchild of officials at the city of West Hollywood, which is underwriting a portion of the program.

"We see this as an opportunity to promote the Strip and raise public consciousness about the advertising potential here," said City Councilman Steve Martin. "We can use this as a marketing tool to heighten competition among advertisers and keep the message fresh."

Most of the financing for the $300,000 event is expected to come from corporate sponsors, which as of last week were still being rounded up. A seven-person panel of judges will choose the winning ads from 1999, based on merit and creativity. Judges haven't been selected yet, but they are expected to be a mix of ad pros, along with possibly some city officials and celebrities.

Awards will be handed out in about 16 categories, including movies, cable and broadcast television, fashion, entertainment and amusements, automotive, beverages, retail and public service.,

Call for entries

Ad agencies are being solicited to submit nominees from the more than 100 billboards along the Strip. The call for entries began this month and will continue through April.

Among the potential nominees, according to event organizers, are the Absolut Vodka ad that appears as if the viewer is seeing double, and Apple Computer's "Think Different" ad featuring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in mid-pucker - created by TWBA Chiat/Day Inc.

The Sunset Strip has served as an art gallery of sorts for urban pop culture, mostly dominated by the entertainment scene. The allure of the Strip began in the 1920s, decades before the area was incorporated and a host of glamorous nightclubs popped up on the scene. By the 1960s, the area had developed a thriving rock music scene. The hip milieu has continued with modem hotels and nightspots such as the Mondrian and the Barfly.

Strip billboards have featured almost every conceivable gimmick - from elaborate neon to blowing smoke to the year-old Videotron. And delivering those messages hasn't come cheaply for advertisers.

Pricey promotion

A billboard on the Strip can fetch $30,000 to $50,000 a month, up to five times as much as those found on less-flashy thoroughfares. And, in the past few years, the use of "tall walls" (ads painted on the sides of buildings) have generated up to $70,000 a month.

"Sunset Boulevard has always been the vanity site, (meaning) you're not necessarily selling more tickets to a movie or getting a bigger viewership because of your billboards, but you're satisfying your ego," said Brian Fox, president and chief executive of Santa Monica-based B.D. Fox & Friends, an ad agency that specializes in entertainment clients. "It's really the (entertainment) industry Strip -- it's like, I'll show, you mine if you show me yours."

The billboard awards are being overseen by the West Hollywood Convention & Visitors Bureau and the city's Chamber of Commerce. To date, the bureau has kicked in about $15,000 and has started to contact corporations to solicit sponsorships.

Hancock Park-based Schaffel & Sakow Event Management is producing the event, to be held at the Hyatt Hotel's rooftop ballroom, which can accommodate 200 guests. The goal is to move the event next year to the Hyatt's adjacent rooftop parking structure, which has a capacity for 1,000 people, and maybe even to televise the event within the next year or two.

Like other award shows, celebrities will present the awards. Ralph Lee, chief executive and creative director of Ars Nova Inc., a Los Angeles-based advertising agency, has designed the 12-inch-high trophy, a brass-plated statuette designed in an elongated "S" shape to represent the Strip's geography.

Asked if the community is ready for yet another awards presentation, Brad Burlingame, executive director of the visitors bureau, said: "I tend to agree that there are plenty of award shows, but this is West Hollywood tooting its own horn. We feel that we have good reason to have these awards. We don't have a lot of competition out there."