World: Analysis - New York's Advertising Week puts US adland in the spotlight.

Can Advertising Week do for ads what Fashion Week did for clothes?

Sponsors hope that New York's Advertising Week - five days of exhibitions, panels, seminars, conferences and a parade of walking ad icons such as Tony the Tiger and Mr Peanut - will do for advertising what the retail industry's Fashion Week, upon which it was modelled, does for haute couture.

Running from 20 to 24 September, the event is designed to appeal both to industry insiders and the general public, with more than 25 ad associations and agencies either scheduling events or hosting internal conferences during the week. Conceived by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, it marks the largest-ever gathering of America's most influential image-makers. Highlights include Kellogg Leadership Breakfasts, a film festival, public advertising exhibits in Grand Central Station, performances by some of Broadway's biggest stars and panels featuring advertising legends such as Phil Dusenberry and Donny Deutsch. It will cover subjects such as branded entertainment and humour in advertising.

The event kicks off with a procession of ad icons from Times Square, up Madison Avenue. Viewers can vote for both their favourite icon and their favourite slogan via a website. 'If the ad industry were a brand, there would be a reality gap between what it actually does and how it's perceived,' the AAAA's chairman and the chief executive and chief creative officer of Euro RSCG Partners, Ron Berger, the man largely responsible for getting the festival off the ground, says. 'The advertising industry is the third-largest industry in New York - that's a story people need to know.'

The aim, Paula Veale, the executive vice-president for corporate communications at the Ad Council, says, is simply to raise awareness. 'The general public does not know how the industry donates its time and talent,' she says.

'Our exhibition, a retrospective of Partnership for a Drug-Free America ads, is a way of getting the word out about what the Ad Council does.'

According to Julie Thompson, a senior vice-president and director of corporate communications at Leo Burnett, which is running two events - a presentation about advertising to women and an exhibition of legendary brands: 'In the US, the public equates the ad industry to used-car salesmen, and this industry is suffering from a lack of respect and a bad reputation. What we're trying to do is so important for the industry - which does not have a ...