“Weego” Wins Cocky Award

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — Here they go, receiving “The Cocky.” “It’s really special I didn’t know how it was going to feel,” says Michael Straznickas, creative director of mcgarrybowen Chicago & Co-creator of the ‘Here, Weego’ commercial. The creators of the now famous Super Bowl commercial, ‘Here, Weego,’ were honored at USC Tuesday as the winners of the 9th Annual Cocky Super Ad Poll. “We pause after every national commercial and each student evaluates it,” says Bonnie Drewniany, USC Professor. “You know we’ve been in the business a long time and we’ve won a few awards, t his one might be one of the heavier ones and I think the most colorful,” says Dave Reger, creative director of mcgarrybowen Chicago & Co-creator of the ‘Here, Weego’ commercial. Yet before the ad was declared award-winning, the makers weren’t really sure of its potential. “It’s kind of a funny joke right, if you think about the tag line, Here We Go,” says Straznickas. “Changing it to like if it were an actual dog named Weego, “Here, Weego.” It seemed partly funny and kind of dumb,” says Straznickas. But USC students liked it. “They all just loved it,” says Drewniany. ‘The Cocky,’ isn’t something the creators were very familiar with before now. “There’s a lot of ad critics out there reviewing the spot and somehow I stumbled on USC and The Cocky,” says Reger. “When he first told me about it I was like, Oh really?,” says Straznickas. Yes, really. While the ad was obviously the class favorite, we wanted to know what the creators liked most about it. “The swimming pool scene where Weego kind of cruises by on his little air mattress,” says Reger. Speaking of ‘Weego’, his real name is Nugget. He too was available for an acceptance speech of sorts on Tuesday. “We’ll see where Weego goes next, he might be back some day,” says Reger.