There’s a funny thing about lifetime achievement awards: they can sound like an ending. Anyone who’s worked with Steve Connelly knows better.
Last night at the Hatch Awards, The Ad Club presented Steve with the Jack Connors Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor in New England advertising. It celebrates someone whose creativity has shaped Boston advertising and lifted others up along the way. We couldn’t be prouder.
And knowing Steve, he was back at 46 Waltham this morning, cup of Earl Grey in hand, with a headline to rewrite.
When Steve’s name was called to accept the award, all the CPers in attendance did not stay seated, much to his dismay. That’s because Steve has spent more than three decades dodging the spotlight while pointing it at his clients, his city, and his people.
Then he took the stage and did what Steve always does: he looked ahead.
He talked about the power of creativity to move people, to move souls, to move feet. And he drew a line every marketer in the room needed to hear: “AI can be clever, AI cannot be creative. It can move words, it cannot move people.” His advice was to cling to empathy, to humanity, and to the fact that “we are the most illogical species on the planet.” Find those moments, he said, and put them in the work.
“Do not settle for being clever. Be creative.”
Steve said his piece last night. Now we’ll say a few things he won’t.
He’s a copywriter first. Steve started Connelly Partners in 1999 as a two-person shop in borrowed space. His idea was simple: great work and a great life don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Twenty-seven years later, his title is still President & Copywriter, and he means both halves. He’s written for Gorton’s Seafood, Titleist, Samsonite, Tufts Health Plan, and the V Foundation, plus the Commonwealth’s COVID comeback campaign, narrated by Denis Leary. By night, he has coached high school basketball and currently pitches on a 50+ championship baseball team.
He takes care of his people. Long before “wellness” was a buzzword, CP was the first agency to launch a student loan paydown program. CP Abroad lets anyone work from our Boston, Dublin, or Vancouver offices. Packs of CP dogs flock to the leather chair behind his desk.
He lifts up his city. Steve started a marketing course at Cathedral High School in the South End to show students of color a path into this business. He opened space at 46 Waltham to startups and young organizations, and lent CP’s talent to causes like South End Soccer and the Center for Collaborative Education.
What Comes Next?
Steve closed with a challenge. Boston, he reminded the room, is “arguably the most creative city in the last 100 years.” It’s home to world-class colleges and universities, hospitals, and biotechs, plus investors backing “the next generation of cool.” And it’s home to advertising.
“You guys have an obligation to take the torch and raise it high, and shine the light back on this city, the greatest city for creativity.”
That’s Steve in a sentence: honored for a lifetime of work, and already talking about what comes next.
Congratulations, Steve. Thank you for everything that led here, and for everything still to come. We’ll see you at the office.
