Uncategorized « AdLibbing.org

March 9, 2012

International Women’s Day

Written by Maria Choi | 3:33 pm

Yesterday was International Women’s Day – a date set-aside, since the early 1900s, to honor and pay tribute to women worldwide. This year’s UN theme is: “Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty”.

Exemplifying the real-life fruition of this theme is Rosaline, a woman I met on a recent trip to Haiti. Rosaline was provided with a micro-loan to start a coffee roasting business. Haitian coffee is very different from the coffee that we’re used to in that they roast the coffee with sugar (yum). Rosaline was able to purchase beans and a roaster to start her business, and now she runs one of the most successful small businesses in her community in Les Cayes, Haiti.

Rosaline is a great example of how a little support can go a long way to her path for a better future. Today, we enjoy the progress of women’s rights and have seen an attitudinal shift in recent history. Women’s empowerment initiatives are now a core focus for many Fortune 500 companies and thousands of nonprofit organizations and NGO’s. But, there is so much still to do. According to the UNESCO, over 1 billion people in this world live in extreme poverty – and the majority of them are women and children. According to Kiva.org, research shows that women reinvest a majority of what they earn to provide herself and her children with a better future. For each additional year a girl attends school, she yields a 20% increase in her future earning potential. It is with this determination that many women around the world are creating change and helping to pull their families out of poverty to provide their children with hopes for a better future.

(more…)

Filed under: Uncategorized

Tags: Haiti, International Women's Day, Kiva.org, United Nations

Comments (0)

March 1, 2012

February 24, 2012

How to Get on a Morning Show When You Can’t Secure a Segment

Written by Ellyn Fisher | 1:01 pm

When you’ve spent years pitching the media for your clients you know that if you couldn’t secure Oprah (when she was on air), an appearance on The Today Show (or GMA) was always the next best thing. However, securing a live in-studio segment in advance can be a long shot — unless you have breaking news or a top celebrity. So, if you have something fun to share, and you want to get the word out, you may want to consider a visit to the shows’ outside plazas in hopes of a 20-second on-air conversation with Al Roker or Sam Champion.

In celebration of the Ad Council’s 70^th birthday last week I coordinated a visit to the Today Show plaza with our staff and some of our most well-known icons—Smokey Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, Rosie the Riveter and Vince & Larry (the Crash Test Dummies). We even brought with us posters of Matt Lauer and Ann Curry “rosified” to highlight our new Facebook app where anyone can become a “riveter” for social change.

After a 5 a.m. wake-up we arrived at the studio by 6 when it was still dark out. Unfortunately it wasn’t one of those unseasonably mild winter mornings in New York City. We patiently waited on line and then entered the plaza area and positioned ourselves strategically next to Lenny (a man who has become famous and actually friends with the co-anchors as a result of his daily visits to Today—rain or shine).

We were soon saddened to learn that our icons wouldn’t be able to enter the plaza due to a strict policy about people in costumes. Unbeknownst to us, you have to contact property management months in advance and get approval from their PR agency. After pleading, begging and even running into 30 Rock to visit various security desks and try to persuade a producer to make a call, it seemed like a sad and hopeless case.

I tried to tell them that we are saving lives and not selling anything. And besides who doesn’t love Smokey and McGruff? No dice. Eventually we got in, thanks to McGruff’s NYPD escort.

In an effort to have the best chance to get on air, I made sure to get a small Smokey doll into the hands of both Al Roker and Lenny.