As it happens, I’m no longer at DDB. My thoughts, however, remain.
I just read about a new contest from WV Free, a non-profit working to promote family planning and protect reproductive freedom for women in West Virginia. The contest asks participants to design a new ad to educate people about emergency contraception, and organizers have specifically said that "the contest is geared toward young people."
As an advocate for reproductive rights, it's hard for me not to be happy for any initiative to educate the public on emergency contraception. However, I have to question the communications around WV Free's contest. The advertisements to announce the contest (as well as the contest-winning ad) will be run exclusively in local newspapers. The only problem is that the target (young people) are reading newspapers less frequently than any other demographic group.
I applaud WV Free for engaging young people to think creatively about ways to educate the public on emergency contraception. But meet them where they already are: online.
Jeremy Pinches
Several years ago, we worked on a campaign with the Kaiser Family Foundation and Viacom called KNOW HIV/AIDS, which was intended to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS as a worldwide issue and inspire hope that trends can be reversed. Although our work on the campaign predates my tenure at DDB, it is part of the reason I was happy to find posornot, a "game" created by Kaiser and Viacom to show that you can't tell someone's HIV status just by looking at them.
Similar to the dorm room favorite hotornot.com, posornot shows a picture of a 20-to-30 year old person and asks the user to select whether they think the person is HIV-positive; or not. I personally found the experience of guessing whether real people were HIV-positive based upon their picture a bit unsettling, and playing the game a few times helped me see some of the stereotypes that I may have about "what I thought an HIV-positive person looks like."
The game and the accompanying message are simple: there is only one way to find out if you or someone else is HIV-positive - get tested. In its first week, the game was played 5.1 million times by over 400,000 people. What would be interesting to know is to what extent the game helps to spread awareness. Are users sharing this game with their friends? Are they going out and getting tested?
Hats off to Kaiser and Viacom for some more work that will hopefully help move the needle.
Jeremy Pinches
As I sat down today to begin digging through the weekend's e-mails, I realized I wanted some music to help bring some life to rainy Monday morning. For whatever reason, the song from a Nike & iTunes commercial from several months back was in my head. Don't you hate when that happens?
Jeremy Pinches
more...
Just in time for World Malaria Day on April 25th, Tom Hadfield (yes, the guy who created soccer.net and sold it to ESPN for $40M at age 17) has created a social network called MalariaEngage in order to increase attention for the disease at a time when its eradication is actually attainable. The network is housed in the broader Zazengo network, a system that uses collaboration tools to "transform social networks into an engine for impact."
Jeremy Pinches
more...
For no real reason, and in no particular order, I present the top 10 reasons that I love working at DDB Issues & Advocacy:
1. Our brown and green rug.
2. Knowing that on the opposite coast of our D.C. office, there are 170+ creative thinkers in Seattle ready .
3. Learning about social media and word-of-mouth's vital role in communications from the boss.
4. Reminding my family what the 2 Ds and B in DDB stand for.
5. I get paid to think creatively about how to effectively communicate about issues like health, international development, equal rights and the environment. How cool is that?
6. Piggybacking on #2, knowing that some of the 170+ love the Mariners as much as I do.
7. Wearing jeans to work on days that don't begin with "Fri"
8. Taking my education and background in communications and combining it with my passion for issues to help our clients move the needle.
9. My neighbor in the office has a snack drawer. An unlocked snack drawer.
10. The level honesty of our office. My co-workers don't even hesitate to tell me on a daily basis how awful the coffee I prepared that morning is.
Jeremy Pinches
Last night I attended the inaugural game at Nationals Park, for the regular season opener against the Atlanta Braves. Not only was I excited to be at the opening game of the season (not to mention the first regular season game at a gorgeous new stadium), but President Bush was scheduled to throw out the first pitch.
Jeremy Pinches
more...
The Illinois House is currently considering a bill to legalize civil unions between same-sex couples, granting them the same legal rights given to married couples. And students who care are trying to get their voices heard.
Jeremy Pinches
more...
I have documented my interest in user-generated ads and products here before, but had never thought about the concept being used in baseball. This Wall Street Journal article tells of fans using their first amendment right to influence their team's scouting, lineups, and even pitch selection (love the shout-out to USS Mariner, my personal favorite Mariners blog).
Jeremy Pinches
Even with a Microsoft takeover looming in the wings, Yahoo! continues to push forward. Their latest tool, Buzz (a social news aggregator, similar to Digg) will allow users to vote on news stories that interest them. Rather than keeping Buzz in its own siloh, Yahoo! says they plan to take the stories that users say are the most 'buzz-worthy' and display them on its front page. This begs the questions: will the headlines be any different if people are picking them? We'll find out sooner rather than later.
Jeremy Pinches
This is a great story by Jeff Brooks, Merkle creative director and blogger (Donor Power Blog), about the need to be candid when telling the story of those in need of relief around the world.
"There is no us and them. There’s just us. Some of us live with life-threatening poverty or violence. Some of us live in comfort and prosperity."
Jeremy Pinches
With the Oscars just around the corner, I wanted to take the opportunity to share my minimally-informed predictions on this year's winners. Why would I offer my picks up in this blog when I've only seen 1 3/4* of the 5 movies up for picture of the year? Three reasons:
*I fell asleep for part of Michael Clayton. I blame this on the massive quantity of food I ate for dinner, and not on George Clooney.
1. I fill in my crosswords with a pen. Even when I have no clue of the answer.
2. I absolutely loved Juno and the soundtrack, and felt compelled to share that with you along with my opinions on dozens of other movies I haven't even seen.
3. Should I be right about any of these predictions, I look like a genius. Should I be wrong? I've only seen 2 of the 5 up for best picture, what did you expect? Win-win, I'd say.
Jeremy Pinches
more...
That's right folks - the Super Bowl is finally upon us. That means two weeks of media hype. Semi-illegal office gambling pools. Strict regulations on what players can wear during interviews. Absurd amounts of buffalo wings. And a broadcast where some of the biggest wallets in America are opened to try and capture the attention of viewers.
Whose ads will you see this year? Advertising Age has put together a list of the companies who have secured slots in Fox's broadcast. I admit to tuning in each year just as much for the ads as the football. Who can forget some of last year's commercials, which brought us controversy, comedy, and the first batch of user-generated Super Bowl ads.
So what makes the difference between millions well spent and a wasted opportunity? Well, as is true for much of today's online content, that's entirely up to you. If you'd like to share your thoughts on this year's batch, check out a real-time polling site like ADBOWL and hear what your peers are saying.
Jeremy Pinches
I resolve to stop drinking soda (even Diet!)
Jeremy Pinches
Yahoo! Pipes is a new tool that allows you to "aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web." What this really means is that you can take anything from anywhere online, add in your own secret ingredients and then feed it to a tool that will chew it all up, and spit it out in a nice, neat, organized package.
I have been working with Pipes (which is still in beta) as a way of tracking media coverage. By taking RSS feeds from publications and blogs and feeding them into a pipe, I am able to then filter out stories that do not contain certain keywords and that do not fall in a certain date range. By doing this, Pipes automates the often daunting task of sorting through results from search engine queries or tracking e-mails.
My experience thus far has only included a handful of the dozens of tools that Yahoo! Pipes offers, but trying to add in news ones and seeing how they affect your end product makes for a fun time. Yahoo! offers some tutorials on how to set up your own Pipe, but my suggestion is to create one and just start playing around. The drag and drop interface adds to the 'cool factor' of this interesting way of gathering and sorting online content.
I bet you're all wondering the same thing as me...what will Google come up with?
Jeremy Pinches
Do producers and stagehands have understudies?
If you are gathering around a turkey in the tri-state area this Thanksgiving, you may want to look for an alternative form of entertainment than New York's broadway shows. It was recently announced that the strike by Broadway stagehands and producers will continue through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a (relatively) big hit for NYC's tourism industry. The New York Times reports that the current strike being held by Broadway stagehands and producers is costing the city roughly $2 million a day!
How long will this madness go on?
Jeremy Pinches
This past January several advertisers embraced the power of user-generated content, soliciting entries from their consumers to create Super Bowl commercials. The efforts that turned out from Doritos and the NFL, among others, were some of the better ads during a lackluster game.
Mountain Dew recently launched a new campaign that takes the user-generated idea to the next level: user-generated products. At DewMocracy.com (gotta love campaign season), users can submit their input for the color, flavor, name, logo, and design of the next Mountain Dew soft drink. Not since the vote for the a new color of M&M's (blue in 1995 and purple in 2002) can I remember having a real voice in the type of product that a manufacturer is putting out.
I for one trust that those who tune in to DewMocracy will create a good product. Are you with me?
Jeremy Pinches
I just opened up my monthly Free Range Thinking newsletter from Andy Goodman, which this month asks, "How High is Your Eye-Q?" Andy Goodman and his partner for the Bad Ads and Bad Presentations books have developed a quiz that tests how confident you are in your ability to distinguish between designs that will attract attention versus those that could drive it away.
Go ahead. Try it. You might just be surprised in your score.
Jeremy Pinches
I blew it. Completely blew it.
I watched the majority of last night's Monday Night Football game between the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys, including the Cowboys clawing back to come within two points with under 30 seconds left on the clock. After the 'Boys failed to convert the two-point conversion that would've tied the game, I turned the TV off. Obviously.
As I drifted off to sleep, I thought that if the game had been a sports movie, the Cowboys would still have a chance at recovering an onsides kick and then kicking a game winning field goal. The chances of that happening were roughly 74,231 to 1 (I estimate) in real life. But it did.
In a game where the Cowboys' Tony Romo (arguably the best QB in the NFC) threw FIVE interceptions, two Bills players (George Wilson and Chris Kelsay) returned interceptions for touchdowns, and Terrence McGee took a Cowboys kickoff 103 yards to the promiseland, I should've seen that ending coming.
Nick Folk, the Cowboys rookie kicker was tasked with making not one but TWO 53-yard field goals at the end of the game (The Bills had called a timeout just prior to the snap on the first kick). I'm speechless. I am without speech.
For a game between two teams that I could care less about, which I thought was going to be a huge blowout, I'd say I got my money's worth.
Jeremy Pinches
I recently had the privilege of representing DDB at the PRSA National Capital Chapter's (NCC) Annual Thoth Awards Gala. We had entered our work on HopeLab's Re-Mission, the first video game scientifically shown to improve health-related outcomes for young people with cancer.
For our work in launching Re-Mission, while influencing a newly emerging media awareness of games that can improve health, we won a Thoth award in the 'Marketing Consumer Products' category. Better yet, DDB was presented with the 'Best of Show' award to close out the ceremony; a great way to cap off the night!
Cheers to HopeLab for developing an innovative way to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness.
Jeremy Pinches
