Monday, April 29 , 2013 is a big night for advertising titan Byron Lewis, founder and chairman emeritus of UniWorld Group, Inc. – the nation’s oldest surviving multicultural advertising company. Lewis is among the “magnificent seven” honorees recognized at the 64th Advertising Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies & Gala Dinner held in the Grand Ballroom of New York’s historic Waldorf Astoria hotel.
This distinction has been 44 years in the making. For over four decades, UniWorld has won some of the largest mainstream advertising accounts ever awarded to an ethnic agency – AT & T, Burger King, Ford Motor Company and Lincoln automotive brands, Mars Candy-Three Musketeers, Colgate-Palmolive, US Marine Corp, and, The Home Depot, among others.
Lewis was chosen by the Hall of Fame’s distinguished Council of Judges to be enshrined.
“Being inducted into the AAF’s Advertising Hall of Fame is a tremendously exclusive honor reserved for highly accomplished individuals who have had a profound impact on our industry and the world around them over the course of their truly impressive careers. This year, our selection committee had the difficult but rewarding job of narrowing down an unmatched field of deserving candidates to reach our final slate of seven inductees. Looking at their collective career accomplishments and the difference they’ve made in so many people’s lives is both incredibly motivating and truly inspirational,” Laurence Boschetto, president and chief executive officer, Draftfcb, and chairman of the Advertising Hall of Fame, says in a statement to press.
AAF president and CEO James Edmund Datri adds, “Like the AAF, this year’s inductees represent all aspects of the advertising industry from clients to agencies to media to production companies across the country. And we are extremely proud to recognize McDonald’s as this year’s corporate inductee for their extraordinary impact on the industry, their unwavering commitment to community service, and for their universally recognized global strategy that has made them an American and global icon.”
A graduate of Long Island University, Lewis holds a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism and many honors including honorary degree from Adelphi University; Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards from Medgar Evers College (CUNY), University of the West Indies, Target Market News, the American Advertising Federation (AAF); and the AG Gaston Lifetime Achievement Award from Black Enterprise Magazine.
An Army veteran and community advocate, Lewis has served on many boards – Apollo Theater Foundation, Jackie Robinson Educational Foundation, and Trustees Board of Long Island University. He’s a Hall of Fame member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.
Click continue to see the entire list of distinguished honorees.
