Those aren't award-winning creatives on the cover of Applied Arts' Advertising & Interactive Awards Annual. Those are the layperson judges brought in to scrutinize this year's big winners.

Gathered by Toronto creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, who acted as guest art director for the the special September/October issue, the panel of everyday people was put together to "re-judge" select categories and offer a different perspective on today's advertising landscape.


"They were sophisticated consumers who had strong points of view on what they saw," said Zak executive Ron Smrczek in a release. "The way they evaluated ads demonstrated a sensibility that many in the advertising industry don't give them credit for."

"We sometimes live in a bubble," said Zak Mroueh, Zak creative officer and founder. "How often do agencies really engage the consumer other than in research groups?"

The panel's seven members were chosen to represent a cross-section of real consumers, and are dubbed 'the student,' 'the soccer mom,' 'the Gen X-er,' 'the boomer,' 'the single professional,' 'the millennial' and 'the hipster.'

According to Applied Arts, there was a 70% discrepancy between the opinions of the consumer jury and the regular jury of advertising professionals. The makeshift panel's shadow winners in the categories of Integrated, TV, and Print/OOH are collected in a specially curated front-of-book section.

The issue also includes Layar technology for augmented reality multimedia content, including this video on "the Jury Experiment."