ARTICLE: “Wanted, poster child of baby health: ads to address infant mortality.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [Milwaukee] 10 August 2011, B3.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/127354988.html
A photo gallery of the babies who came to the casting call:
http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/photos/127558958.html
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Sometimes press releases about ad campaigns can be about life or death...and unexpected generosity.
I was duped once during the summer by a press release about a new test of male infertility. Behind its facade of offering hope for couples who couldn't conceive, the test turned out to be something re-purposed and hardly novel...and I felt silly for taking the bait, exhaustively researching the product, and involving tons of outside sources who were hardly impressed by this product. The project was dropped and an important lesson was learned.
This press release was different--a casting call for a public health department ad campaign spearheaded by the all volunteer, non-profit ad agency SERVE Marketing.
INTERVIEWS
These interviews really did happen on the fly. My editor wanted to get this into the paper quickly so that parents and their babies could plan to participate. I spoke to the city health department and to the creative director of SERVE and pulled it together.
POST SCRIPT
And the winners of Milwaukee's next strong baby campaign are: http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/129490038.html.
