a crowd packed with advertising industry bigwigs was on hand as the Television Bureau of Canada handed out the 2000 Bessie Awards at Toronto's Sheraton Centre, May 10.

The winners were selected from approximately 600 entries, evaluated by a panel of nine industry judges.

The Bessies best of show single spot prize this year went to Saint John Ambulance's "Meat Cutter" from Apple Box Productions director Randy Diplock. The creative work on the ad was handled by Palmer Jarvis ddb creative director Chris Staples, art director Ian Grais (both now with Vancouver agency Rethink) and copywriter Allan Russell.

The best of show campaign went to "Blind Date" and "Table Manners," directed by Jolly Roger's John Mastromonaco for Lever Pond's. Creative credits go to Ammirati Puris Lintas creative director Doug Robinson, art director Elspeth Lynn and writer Lorraine Tao.

"Blind Date," "Table Manners" and "Meat Cutter" also received singles gold at the Bessies, along with Kellogg's Eggo "Family Breakfast," Kraft Canada's "Laundry Night," Clarica's "Men's Room," Lipton's "Whoopi Cushion" and Rogers Cantel/AT&T "Immigration."

Campaign gold was scored by the aforementioned Lever Pond's campaign and the Palmer Jarvis Saint John Ambulance campaign, consisting of the "Meat Cutter," "Tablesaw" and "bbq" spots.

This year's Spiess Award, traditionally presented to a member of the advertising production community for excellence and dedication to commercial production, went to David Fleury of David Fleury Music. The Bob Mann Award was presented to Spin Productions' Steve Lewis.

"You have to understand the roots of the award before you can know what it was meant to do and be," says Saatchi & Saatchi's Anna Tricinci, one of the Bob Mann Award judges. Of the decision to award Lewis, Tricinci says after working with him at Spin over the years, he was a logical choice.

"He has always been a bit of a background player, but years ago I finally realized how important his contributions are," says Tricinci. "You don't really know what he is doing back there and then all of a sudden something appears on the screen and you have to say, 'Wow, where did that come from?'"

The Kari Award for best performance in a commercial went to Ted Whittall for his work in the Kellogg's Eggo "Family Breakfast" spot.

The Jeffrey Reneau Award is presented to a student who has created or produced a television commercial as part of their curriculum. This year's award went to Kevin Davies of Sheridan College for Clearnet pcs' "Cut The Cord."

The Walter Bell Memorial Award, honoring creative and human excellence for a student about to enter the industry, went to Humber College student Dan Yurman for his script for a spec psa, "My Wife."