Student Powerade Olympics ad gets award

A spec television commercial for Powerade that was produced last year by more than 40 Emerson students majoring in marketing or film recently received a Hatch Award from The Ad Club of Boston—recognizing an interesting outside-the-classroom collaboration.

“The award…is not only for me, but for everyone’s hard work,” said recent graduate Julian Cohen ’14, co-executive producer of the commercial who majored in Visual and Media Arts. “I’m very honored to be recognized by a highly reputable organization like The Ad Club, and I’m sure it will help me in my career.”

The spec ad was awarded a “Bronze Bowl” in the student category.

David Dominguez ’15, a Marketing Communications major who was Cohen’s roommate, first thought of the Powerade project as a portfolio clip in the summer of 2013. They received help from Peter Seronick, a Marketing Communication faculty member.

“Getting people on board was very easy,” said Dominguez, who is from Cuernavaca, Mexico. “At Emerson, everyone is very passionate about what they do.”

David Dominguez '15, a Marketing Communication major behind a Powerade spec ad that won the Hatch Award. (Courtesy Photo)

The spec advertisement—meaning it was created without the approval of Powerade, and could be used as a proposal or portfolio clip—features a young boy practicing basketball moves, morphing back-and-forth to shots of him as a man, and ends with Powerade bottles lined up in the shape of the Olympic rings.

The commercial was shot in Emerson’s Brown and Plofker Gym in Piano Row in one day in September 2013. Kelly Pylinski '15 was co-executive producer and Zack Bernstein '15 was the director.

“Our philosophy was to get this done and to be very efficient,” Cohen said. “The fact that it was a bunch of Emerson students working on it and we got a final product so quickly… I was super-proud about that.”

Cohen and Dominguez both attended Emerson College Los Angeles for the Fall 2014 semester.

Dominguez interned at Acento, a Hispanic–targeted marketing agency, working as a copywriter. He is hoping to intern at a Boston-based agency for his final semester at Emerson this spring.

Julian Cohen '14, executive producer of the Powerade spec ad that recently won a Hatch Award. (Courtesy Photo)

Cohen just moved back home to Tenafly, New Jersey, and is working as an apprentice at the Young & Rubicam marketing communication agency in New York City. In Los Angeles, he interned at ABC and received mentorship through the Emerson Board of Overseers Mentor Program from Lisa Black, executive vice president of content and business development at Fishbowl Media, and her husband, Emerson Overseer Daniel Cohen (no relation to Julian Cohen), executive vice president of pay TV and digital sales at Disney.

“I’ve learned that advertising is the place [for me] to be,” Julian Cohen said. “I love that it’s short projects and that I can do so many. I need to do a lot of things.”