It's Ten Blocks to 33rd Street

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

Published: January 7, 2013,  New York Times

A NEW print ad by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America shows a closed bathroom stall, with the gap below the door revealing the enormous clown shoes of the occupant. “I.B.D. is no laughing matter,” says the headline.

“If you have inflammatory bowel disease (I.B.D.), life can feel like a three-ring circus,” continues a block of text. “Chances are, you know one of the nearly 1 in 200 Americans who suffers from the debilitating pain and constant disruptions that come with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.” 

Other stall-door ads show a shin-to-floor view of a woman in a wedding dress (“I.B.D. gave her a day she’ll never forget”), Santa Claus (“I.B.D. doesn’t care if you’ve been naughty or nice”) and a young girl whose feet don’t reach the floor (I.B.D. can make growing up a real pain”).

While the photos and headlines sound a note of whimsy, the text below the ads is decidedly serious, all of them noting, “The physical and emotional toll can be devastating.”

The public service ads encourage readers to learn more about Crohn’s disease by visiting a microsite, EscapeTheStall.com, which has been created for the campaign. The pro bono effort is by the New York office of DraftFCB, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

In a commercial for the campaign, the viewer hears, “Chances are you know someone with I.B.D.” The voice turns out to be that of the actress Amy Brenneman  (“Judging Amy” and “Private Practice”), who says near the end of the spot, “Someone like me.”

The organization hopes that the public service announcement will run widely on television and in movie theaters. Other elements for the campaign include billboards and ads online and in airports. Ads printed on transparent adhesive film will even appear on mirrors in public restrooms.

The nonprofit group projects that it will secure from $20 million to $23 million in donations of broadcast and print advertising over the next year. But it did not initially want to show bathrooms in its campaign.

“We really started this campaign by saying we wanted to stay away from the bathroom, because we thought the bathroom would underrepresent our disease,” said Richard Geswell, the president of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.

Along with needing to evacuate frequently, symptoms of Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract, include abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, fevers, weight loss and extreme fatigue.

“I was worried that our patients might think it was too lighthearted, and some aren’t in public restrooms because they can’t even leave the house,” said Mr. Geswell, who added he was won over by the new campaign, which he said struck the right tone and would spur awareness.

Rich Levy, chief creative officer of DraftFCB Healthcare, said, “When we first started this project, the last thing we wanted to do is what I’d call bathroom humor.” But he said that although the campaign was set in restrooms and had whimsical notes, its impact aimed to be more profound.

“What was the universal truth was that behind those doors are thousands and thousands of people who are suffering, and you don’t know who they are, but they know who they are,” said Mr. Levy.

Although the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation was founded in 1967, only 18.7 percent of Americans have heard of the group, according to a survey commissioned by the group.

As for Crohn’s disease itself, the survey found that 44 percent of respondents knew at least a little about the disease, below the number familiar with diabetes (86 percent), multiple sclerosis (58 percent) and lupus (46 percent).

Mr. Geswell, the foundation president, said that by raising awareness about Crohn’s, his group hoped that along with helping those who don’t know they have the disease, it would help others understand that friends and relatives might be too embarrassed to disclose their condition.

“Aunt Sally who never left the house or came to social occasions” may, far from meaning to snub her family, “turn out to have had Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis,” Mr. Geswell said. Some with Crohn’s disease must visit the bathroom as much as 40 times a day, the foundation says.

Carol Cone, co-author of “Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding” and managing director for brand and corporate citizenship at Edelman, the public relations firm, acknowledged the challenge any agency would face with such an awareness campaign.

“How do you talk about bowels and bowel movements, and do it in a way that’s not so slight and flip that it’s not taken seriously?” said Ms. Cone.

After reviewing the new campaign, Ms. Cone was impressed.

“The way they showed the feet and footwear was a wonderful analogy that Crohn’s and colitis affects anybody in any walk of life,” Ms. Cone said. “This is a sophisticated, hip and modern branding campaign.”

Recently, someone asked me if I miss ‘consumer’ advertising. He wondered if I missed the challenge of working on big brands with big budgets. I said, “no — I don’t miss it at all.” He seemed surprised. I guess he didn’t realize how much I love doing what I do.  He asked me why I loved it so much.

This is what I said (although not necessarily in this order):

Here are two spots – one by Google called “Project Glass – One Day” and the second is a parody of the same spot.

In some ways, I find them both entertaining. The first is funny because Google is trying so hard to be Apple. The second is funny because it’s so true.

Enjoy.

4.12.12

Good morning from Basel, Switzerland.

So far this has been a picture perfect trip. All the connections have been perfect. All the flights left on time and arrived on time. While the weather is a little cold and rainy, it’s not snowing, it’s not freezing and it’s pretty easy to get around.

Not like my last trip to Basel.

A little more than a year ago, I was supposed to come to Basel for a client meeting. unfortunately, two freak snow storms, multiple flight delays and lots of bad timing meant I never got here. But not for a lack of trying.

Last year, I took of from JFK airport for Basel with a connecting flight in London. (By the way, never connect through London.) Of course, that flight is an overnight flight and you always barely sleep. The day we arrived, London was hit by a freak snowstorm that closed all the airports. That meant our connecting flight to Basel was 6 hours delayed. But at least our flight was leaving. Hundreds of flights were canceled. But we were getting out. Eventually.

Our flight boarded and we took off for our short flight to Basel. Ah, but here’s the catch – that freak snowstorm that his London had moved and was now pounding France and Switzerland. Right as we were about to land, the pilot came over the PA system and announced we’d have to circle for a while Basel cleaned the runways for  us. But he told us not to worry ‘because we filled up with gas in London, so we can stay up here for a long time.’  Well, we circled for a long time, so long in fact that we had to make a detour to stop and get gas. The pilot informed us the nearest place to land was a British Airways hub in Lyon, France. Now, keep in mind that it’s snowing there, too. Hard.

We land in Lyon. We’ve now been flying or delayed for 15 hours. We sit on the ground in Lyon getting gas for another 2 hours. We remove the snow and ice from the plane – another hour. Oh, and did I mention that there’s no food on the plane since it was supposed to be a short flight.

Eventually, we take off for Basel. Hooray. Except one little detail. Basel airport has closed for the night. So mid-flight, the pilot announces that we’re heading BACK to London. Now, everyone is breaking the law. People start pulling out cellphones to find a place to stay in London. I find a Holiday Inn Express about 25 miles outside of London. It’s the only rooms available in the entire city.

Two hours later, we land in London. It’s not 2 AM. Just before our plane lands, a 747 that was heading to Mumbai decides it can’t leave London either. And empties its 500 passengers in front of our plane at London customs. I don’t know if you know this, but at 2 AM when London Customs isn’t expecting 1000 people, the two customs agents they have on the night shift aren’t really enough to handle the load. And Sophie and Trevor (the customs Agents) don’t really give a damn. Another 1-1/2 later we clear customs and get a taxi to drive us to the Holiday Inn Express. (Yes, me and three co-workers.)

It’s now 4 AM, we haven’t eaten since 11 AM. We get to the Holiday Inn Express and order the British version of Domino’s Pizza. Except this place has already closed but is willing to sell us their left over pizza. We take it.

It arrived an hour later. The night clerk at  the Holiday Inn finds us some beer. And at 5 AM, we sit in one of the rooms, eating pizza, drinking beer and watching the British version of COPS — in sign language. Yes, the only station that was broadcasting was showing COPS and instead of sound – had a woman using sign language in the corner of the screen.

Now I know what you’re thinking — no way. This did not happen like this. Something was embellished in this story. Sorry, not one word. This is exactly how it happened. Except for one other little tidbit. British Airways somehow lost my luggage. They sent it ahead to Basel even though I never made it. I wouldn’t see that bag for over a week.

But today is a different day. Today everything worked. Today my suitcase was tucked under the seat in front of me. Yes, it’s raining in Basel today. And yes, it’s a little chilly. But I made it. And after all, that’s all that really matters.

3.19.12

Love your existing clients. That’s my mantra for the rest of the year. Make every day like you’re pitching for their business. Show them work for free. Give them unsolicited ideas. Make them sweat. Make them uncomfortable (at times). Make them know that you are always thinking about them and their business.

And that’s nothing new. We do think about our clients every day. We just don’t tell them as often as we should.

The interesting thing about working for an advertising agency is that (at times) we’re terrible communicators. Ever look at most agency’s web site? How about the print campaign they create for themselves. Most people will say it’s because we’re too busy working on client business to work on ourselves. You know the old ‘the show makers children have no shoes’ story.  I think that’s a bunch of bull.  But that’s a posting for another day.

Today and every day we should remind our clients why they chose us in the first place. Remember – our clients chose to work with us. They didn’t just hand us their business. They had us come in, show them what we can do, show them our thinking, and they chose to work with us. Every day when we show them what we do – our thinking, our creativity, our strategic brilliance – we reaffirm that choice.

Today let’s do something amazing. Let’s find a nugget that our client hasn’t thought of first. Let’s uncover an insight that really makes us stop and think. Let’s find a creative solution for the same old problems. Let’s go out of our way to thank our clients for trusting their brands (and their jobs and future promotions) with us.

Today let’s keep our eye on the small stuff. Let’s make sure that everything has been through editorial – even if it’s only for an internal meeting. Let’s follow-up on that e-mail request a little faster. Let’s attend a meeting in person versus on the phone. Let’s make sure we fill out our timesheets quickly so we can make sure we’re on budget. Let’s communicate internally so we can make sure we’re on task.

And let’s not forget that if we don’t do all of these things every day, we risk losing everything.

There are 293 days left in 2012.  That means we have at least 293 new business meetings to do this year. Every client. Every day.

2.12.12

Last night was the first graded presentation in my portfolio class at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The students were a little nervous, the room was ridiculously hot, and a case of the stomach flu was running through the room. (No pun intended.)

But through it all some amazing ideas were presented. I was incredibly proud of the students. They did a great job.

Here are some standouts.

The best idea of the night belongs to a student who didn’t even want to present her idea to me last week. She didn’t think it was good enough. Or she thought it was too simple. Or she was concerned because the idea came to her in five minutes. But once I saw the idea I knew that – as Charlie Sheen would say – it was a ‘winner.’ The best part of the idea – was that she got all the key points of the strategy across in a very, very simple visual. Congratulations.

The next grouping of ideas were all really well done – but has small flaws. Things that can be fixed. Little components that, given more time, would make them really great ideas. I was especially proud of three students.

The first took a simple idea and wrote some really good copy. She is very unsure of her copywriting ability, so it was great to see her experimenting with words and come up with a great solution.

The second took an idea that was good and made it great. The execution was so much better that I expected. If it wasn’t for some small type issues, this could have been the #1 idea of the night.

My third favorite moment was a woman who hates to present. You remember her – the woman who used the word ‘like’ 22 times in one sentence. She has been working really, really, really hard to improve her presentations. And last night was the best presentation yet. Not only was her idea crisp and interesting, but also her presentation was excellent. And not one inappropriate usage of the word ‘like.’

Of course, there were also a few near hits, a few near misses and a few great ideas that were presented poorly. But for the most part, last night was a huge success. Since the work we created is spec work for really companies, I can’t post the winning concepts. I would probably get sued. But you’ll have to trust me, they’re really fun.

And for the guy who had to leave the room because of the flu – don’t worry – I’ll give you a chance to present next week. And thanks for trying.

2.24.12