APTA and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association recently received the 2012 Hermes Awards from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals for their television and radio ad campaign relating to the federal surface transportation reauthorization bill that featured former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. The radio ad won the Gold Award in the Audio Advocacy category, while the television spot took an honorable mention for TV Advocacy.

Both ads feature excerpts of the two men during their respective presidencies talking about the importance of public transit and highway investment to the U.S. economy. The goal of the campaign was to elevate transportation on the congressional agenda, and urge the House and Senate to move forward on a long-term surface transportation authorization bill.

Produced in partnership with “Something Else Strategies,” a media and communications firm with offices in Washington, D.C., South Carolina and Alabama, the ad has won three other national and international awards since it was unveiled in 2011.

The TV spot has run on CNN, FOX, NBC’s Meet the Press, and ABC’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour in the D.C.-Metro area, and the radio ad aired regularly on WTOP—Washington’s highest rated news talk station—along with other major cities including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Seattle. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce-led Americans for Transportation Mobility coalition produced a similar radio spot in key media markets during the 2011 August congressional recess, and made it the foundation of a major, six-figure TV ad buy in targeted Republican congressional districts during February 2012.

The Hermes Awards program is an annual international competition recognizing outstanding creativity in the concept, writing, and design of traditional and emerging media. This year, judges selected winners from more than 4,700 applications.