Heavy Page
ALS Association
Issue 10 | March 2009
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
David Lubars - Chief Creative Officer; Bill Bruce - Chief Creative Officer; Mike Boulia - Creative Director; Brian Donovan - Creative Director ; Rachel Pierce - Art Director; Alexis Bello - Copywriter
Production Team
Billy Siegrist - Photographer; Steve Lakeman - Retoucher
Date
October 2008
Background
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is often referred to as ‘Lou Gehrig's disease’, after the baseball player who suffered from it. It is a progressive illness that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. To raise money, The ALS Association of Greater New York holds a benefit dinner each year called the Lou Gehrig Sports Awards. The task was to place an ad within the programmes that would encourage guests to donate.
Idea
While others placed a simple one-line ad within the book, the agency decided to take it one step further. They wanted to remind attendees what ALS is all about and that they were at the event to help raise money for more research into a cure for the condition. To demonstrate how difficult even the simplest things become to a sufferer, a heavy piece of metal was placed inside the page the ad was printed on, thus making it heavy and difficult to turn over.
Results
A programme was placed on each chair at the dinner. Guests were surprised at the heaviness of it, and were led directly to the ad. They were heard exclaiming with surprise throughout the banquet room.
Our Thoughts
What I like about this work is that it is interactive. It gets people to do things. To tie a lace on a shoe or to turn a page in a programme. Easy things made difficult in order to demonstrate the debilitating effect of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Nice to know that BBDO New York, the No.1 creative agency in the world in 2008 according to The Big Won (www.thebigwon.com) produces small, thoughtful campaigns like this as well as big extravaganzas like HBO ‘Voyeur’.