It's time to look back at the Year That Was, think deep thoughts on it all and spit out a few New Year's AdResolutions.

When we asked O&M's co-CCOs Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk to take on this lofty assignment, they were in the midst of the media circus sparked by the virulent success of their Dove Evolution film.

We figure our request caused them to take pity on the less fortunate adfolk out there, who (despite going through the motions) had no shot at the limelight - and that in the Dove spirit of seeing the beauty in everyone, were inspired to give Bs a chance.

So O&M art director Ivan Pols and writer Chris Dacyshyn kindly created a new prize scheme which takes into account the many factors that can mediocritize the calibre of execution - thereby giving Bs new hope and the will to go on...

Give Bs a chance

All too often, ad agencies submit their finest work to award shows, receiving a curt letter of rejection in place of accolades. While the very best ads obviously deserve recognition, do the close-but-no-cigar ads deserve to be discounted entirely? The creators of The Two Show say "no."

According to Ivan Pols: "Plenty of award shows raise the bar. What we need is a show that lowers it."

The Two Show was created to reward hard-working advertisers who did their very best under trying circumstances, and partially succeeded. In fact, only the Twoonies take into account the excuses that resulted in a so-so ad.

Eligible excuses range widely, from: "Only a C-level creative team was available" and: "The art director wants to be a director director so he insisted on ruining the spot himself" to: "The account supervisor refused to sleep with the research moderator" and: "English wasn't the client's first, second or third language."

Next year, The Two Show will expand to include a special category for reasonably good ads that didn't run because quantitative research determined the branding to be weak.

The Two Show is now accepting 2007 online submissions at www.thetwoshow.com and Twoonies will be awarded sometime in 2008.