January 30, 2012
TED Ads Worth Spreading
Many of us are familiar with TED, the non-profit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading.” TED’s mission is to change the world by sharing knowledge, ideas, and inspiration. And each year they give a nod to the world of advertising with their “Ads Worth Spreading” contest.
According to TED, an ad worth spreading is “an ad that people truly want to see and share. It might be hilariously funny or stunningly beautiful or wickedly clever. It might encapsulate a killer idea, promote an inspiring cause, or tell a captivating story.”
An ad worth spreading is not necessarily a PSA. A quick visit to the contest’s YouTube page reveals that finalists range from cats with thumbs (Cravensdale milk) and dancing forest animals (Fed Ex) to PSAs for the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, The National Domestic Violence Hotline, the ONE campaign and many more.
Among my favorites are short films produced on behalf of Chipotle’s Cultivate Foundation. Abandoned and Back to the Start depict the struggles faced by small family farms and drive home the message that sustainable farming practices are more important than ever. The music and imagery make these films/ads quite moving and in my opinion, worth spreading.
We’re thrilled that several Ad Council campaigns have made the cut:
Adoption from Foster Care
Autism Awareness
Unplanned Pregnancy Prevention
Horn of Africa Relief
Buzzed Driving Prevention
While contest winners are ultimately selected by TED, you can show your support for a particular ad by voting on the YouTube channel.
What are you favorite ads worth spreading? What motivates you to share ads with your networks?
November 3, 2011
Pop culture and public health
The following blog was oringally posted on APHA on October 31, 2011.
On an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Dr. Izzie Stevens tells her HIV-positive patient that she doesn’t have to have an abortion because of her fear of transmitting the virus to her baby. With proper, regular medication, Izzie tells her, she has a 98 percent chance of having a healthy baby free of HIV. That’s 98 percent. The doctor repeats that fact three times in the brief conversation, and the patient herself says it once more to drive home the point.
That one-minute conversation took months of behind-the-scenes work to bring to life on the small screen. It was a collaboration between the show’s writers and producers and the Kaiser Family Foundation, who provided the health research on that storyline, says Tina Hoff, senior vice president at the foundation.
“We have a mutual goal, which is to bring the largest possible audience to the content,” said Hoff, a presenter during this morning’s session on “Content Integration and Social Change: Sparking Action Through Programming Advertising and Popular Culture.” “For a fully rounded public health strategy, we can’t ignore the entertainment industry.”
Hoff was on a panel with other health and entertainment leaders at today’s session, which was moderated by Peggy Conlon, president of the Ad Council. When health information and compelling storytelling come together, whether the medium is TV, film or the Internet, great things can happen — behavior change can occur, presenters said.
Filed under: Communications, Media
Tags: 16 and Pregnant, APHA Annual Meeting, Contagion, Health and Society, Hollywood, Kaiser Family Foundation, MTV, Participant Media, Teen Mom
October 21, 2011
On the Road to Singularity
If content is the cheese how do you strategically place your messaging throughout the maze? The assumption being that you can’t reach all of the potential audience through one corridor as consumers are coming from all directions and they may miss your message if you don’t account for all the means of passage.
Today there are about 8 distinct media platforms namely; Internet, Direct, Magazines, Newspapers, Outdoor, Radio, TV and those that refuse to fit neatly are often referred to as Alternative. Each platform can be further divided by the content they provide and who they are consumed by. It is hard to think that any of these areas will completely fade away because they all have an audience which depends and(or) spends on them. But the distinction between them is becoming less and less relevant when taken from the point of view of how they are accessed. You can listen to music on TV station websites, read news on radio sites and watch and listen to content on newspaper and magazine websites. Outdoor, the granddaddy of advertising media vehicles, is also being re-imagined through the introduction of augmented reality with its ability to add an additional dimension to what our meager senses provide and also the enhanced interactivity digital boards and NFC (near field communications) provide.
Google, Apple and nearly every TV manufacturer already have products out which promise to transform your living room TV into a multiplatform juggernaut You can have nearly everything mentioned above in addition to email, text, instant messaging, voice calling and even video chat on your phone, computer, tablet and now your TV. Everything everywhere! But where is this convergence and evolution taking us?
Filed under: Media
Tags: media platforms, raymond kurzweil

