2021 Manny Awards MedAdvocate Jury Member: James Talerico

2021 Manny Awards MedAdvocate Jury Member

James Talerico

President & Executive Creative Director

Heartbeat

James Talerico

Growing up near Scranton Pennsylvania, James spent a childhood in his grandfather’s bar, serving pony bottles of Rolling Rock to retired coal miners while memorizing verb declensions for the next day’s Latin class. He’s been seeking out and creating such strange juxtapositions ever since.

As President & Executive Creative Director for Heartbeat – the Agency for Healthcare Challenger Brands – James has launched ambitious creative campaigns, unafraid of emotion, rich in craft and tailored to inspire action, for clients such as Genentech and Pfizer, Applied Therapeutics and Agile Therapeutics. With his clients, his teams have hoisted more than 200 creative advertising awards during the last ten years, from Pencils to MANNYs, Webbies to EMMYs.

James started his career in advertising as a founding partner and creative leader of thoughtbubble productions in 1997, a creative agency on the front lines of the digital revolution. Thoughtbubble’s ground-breaking initiatives were featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Ad Age and AdWeek as harbingers of the next generation of advertising content.

His subsequent path to healthcare carved through sectors as diverse as publishing and CPG, QSR and professional sports. Along the way James picked up a healthy skepticism of the latest thing and a deep commitment to advancing good health through creative wonder and hard work.

Sometimes found sitting on a piece of fiberglass off the coast of New Jersey, James is madly in love with two glorious women: his wife, Shawn, and daughter, Hallelujah. His favorite color is white.

About the 2021 Manny Awards and MedAdvocate Jury Members

Med Ad News honors the best in healthcare communications at the 32nd Annual Manny Awards, to be held virtually on April 22nd, 2021.

For more than thirty years, the Manny Awards have paid tribute to the creative work of agencies serving the healthcare market, their people and their contributions to the industry. Each year at this gala awards ceremony, Med Ad News and agency professionals come together to acknowledge those making significant contributions to, and celebrate creative excellence in, healthcare communications. On this special evening, more than 1,000 industry peers will join Med Ad News in honoring winners in a range of award categories.

Launched as part of the 2016 Med Ad News Manny Awards, a second level of voting is conducted by a carefully vetted jury of industry experts. Finalists in each category, determined by the initial online voting process, will be reviewed in detail by the judging panel. The “MedAdvocate” panel consists of unbiased representatives who analyze the outstanding components of each finalist creative award campaign as part of an inspiring dialogue.

This process is repeated for each category finalist for every creative category. Following the panel’s discussion, the Manny Awards MedAdvocate Jury is asked to cast their blind ballots to determine the winning campaigns.