Welcome to the Club

There’s only one group that protects your ability to do what you do on a daily basis. As advertisers and marketers, nobody else is going to watch out for our rights on local, state, and federal levels. From advocacy to lobbying to tax issues, it’s us. The AAF.

When we say we’re here to “Protect and promote the advertising industry on all levels,” that means educating policymakers, the news media, and the general public on the value that advertising brings to the well-being of the nation. We do this by advocating advertising as free speech protected by the First Amendment, actively promoting advertising as an essential industry, and by forming the National Advertising Review Board.

From grassroots activities to lobbying on Capitol Hill, we’re doing what it takes to protect advertisers everywhere through our nationwide network, which allows us quick mobilization. As a result, we’ve defeated taxes on advertising multiple times, and helped to stop over-reaching bills on advertisers’ rights to free speech. As a member of AAF-Louisville, you’ll have a friend in Frankfort and Washington, and access to regular legislative and government alerts.

AAF-Louisville honors advertising excellence through the ADDY Awards and the Silver Medal Award.

First bestowed in 1950, AAF-Louisville’s “Louisvillian of the Year” is the oldest award of its kind in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This outstanding achievement is given to publicly recognize generous personal contributions made to the community in the areas of civic, educational or business progress in recent years.

Every year at the Annual Awards Evening & Membership Meeting we honor some of our amazing volunteers. Awards include The Betty Stoner Award, the 5-Star Member Service Awards, the Partnership Award, and the President’s Star Award. At this event, we also announce the winners of the ever popular Hot 10 Awards, recognizing the 10 best and brightest advertising professionals 32 and under. 

In our club, promoting diversity in advertising isn’t about which stock photo you use in your client’s marketing piece. It’s about creating an advertising community and workforce that’s diverse in every sense of the word.

Our goal is to promote inclusiveness and fairness throughout the marketing and advertising process – from employment and career advancement to competition and compensation for creative services and media buys. We are working to increase the ad industry’s pace and investment in multicultural marketing and workplace diversity to help our community compete in a
global marketplace.

On a national level, the AAF hosts multicultural marketing conferences, provides research on industry diversity and multicultural marketing practices, corporate scholarship, intern and educational outreach programs, and issue forums for lawmakers.

Locally, AAF – Louisville provides programs that educate our membership, community, and students about the opportunities in advertising that they may have once thought out of reach. We host seminars and provide scholarships that prepare the industry’s future leaders so they recognize the importance of a diversified workforce and multicultural marketing’s impact on a company’s bottom line.

Name any other profession where you can walk right up to the tops in the biz at a meeting or gathering and shake their hand. Or, more importantly, hand them a card.

AAF-Louisville events are the best in town if you’re looking to rub elbows with other advertising professionals. Whether it’s a happy hour, Day at the Downs, an informational luncheon, or at the ADDY Awards, there’s always an opportunity to make new friends with clients, vendors, and employers in the biz, and keep up with the old ones.

Is there any other business, any other industry, where work and play so productively coexist? We think not.

AAF-Louisville offers multiple educational and professional development programs and seminars to educate members on the latest trends in leadership, technology, creativity, and marketing. We bring in the advertising industry’s thought leaders from top agencies and brands to keep our members current on what’s new—and what’s next in the advertising industry. We also feature local speakers to present advertising and marketing topics that are impactful in the Louisville community.

As members of the advertising community, we’re in a unique position to help bring awareness to causes that help make Louisville so great. Each year, we gather a Dream Team of local advertising and marketing professionals to promote a local nonprofit.

Sometimes it’s a website. Sometimes it’s a brochure. Sometimes it’s a full-blown rebrand. Whatever the need, our crew of volunteer designers, writers, planners, and others come together to make it happen.

As opportunities arise for our club and membership to use their powers for good, we help to foster those connections, whether it’s through collecting donations for local charities, providing scholarships, mentorships, or other ways we can solve community concerns by applying the communication skills of our members.