F*ck you, Cancer!

This is my kind of cause marketing campaign: It's meaningful, street-level, message-driven, and has kickass attitude:



It's part of the Canadian Cancer Society's "Fight Back" campaign. I haven't been able to track down the ad agency responsible, [update: a commenter tells me it's DDB Canada] but I wish I had done this campaign. It's been up around town for several weeks now, yet it keeps getting my attention.



The reason I'm so keen on the tone is that, like many Canadians, I have lost loved ones to cancer. Both my maternal Grandparents succumbed to it, too young, and it eventually got the best of my paternal Grandmother — even though she lived strong with thyroid cancer to the age of 98.

I find that people who deal with the spectre of cancer in the family tend to react in one of two ways: Either in hushed tones, as a taboo subject, or with righteous anger.

I am one of the latter group. It may seem irrational to anthropomorphize a cellular disease, but even misplaced anger is a great motivation. My mother tells me the story of how my uncle, a family doctor, was prone to fits of rage against inanimate objects when he realized he could not save their mother's life. But he remained a vigilant and committed fighter against the disease for the rest of his career. I imagine many researchers are driven by the same fire.





















Through activities like Movember or our Breast Aware Day last month, I've participated in some of the goofier consciousness-raising efforts. But for me it's a particularly vengeful form of satire.

Beneath my cheesy, sparsely-sprouting moustache, you should be able to hear me muttering:

"Fuck you, Cancer!"

Adding a little Mo to the cause

I'm off to a late start, but inspired by Facebook friends like Jake and Dave O., I've joined the whiskers brigade for Movember.

According to their Web site, "Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues - specifically prostate cancer."

Participants are invited to grow a moustache all month to raise awareness and donations towards prostate cancer research. I'm doing it. How could I not?

Acart Communications has a long association with the moustache. Al Albania, our President, was long famous for his Italian classic until he recently shaved it off for a change. John Staresinic, our Senior Creative Director, still rocks his. These are the two men I report to, so a little flattery through imitation can't hurt, right?

That said, I've never been a facial hair guy. My sideburns occasionally get a little '70s copshowesque, but I declined the whole goatee trend, and I've never had more than a week's beard. But I'm up for this. If I can wear an enormous pink bra to client meetings for women's health, the least I can do is grow a hair for my own gender.

So please donate! The movement has an excellent online donation tool. My page is http://ca.movember.com/mospace/348858.

You're gonna love my nutty infomercals

Working in various agencies (and freelancing) in a smaller market like Ottawa, you get your share of bizarre or disturbing clients coming through the door — like the guy who wanted me to brand a porn version of Netflix, or the domain registration entrepreneur who asked me to create an ad that had a 100% chance of getting publicly banned. But even though I've seen my share of hair-brained entrepreneurs, I've never had to do an ad that would cause me to hang my head in shame.

Which is why I was so curious about the online infomercials featured in Huff Post's The 15 Stupidest Products of All Time. Some I had seen before, like the Tiddy Bear, although I had always assumed it was a joke:



Related products, like the Kush Support, are too dumb to be made up:



And yet others, such as the Aspray and Comfort Wipe, are just plain gross:





But as amusing as these are, you still have to stop and think of the incredible amount of work it is to shoot a TV commercial. I just got home from a shoot in Montreal for a real client. But no matter how ad-hoc or low budget the production, several teams of people still had to sit around through pre-production meetings, video shoots, and offline approvals trying to maintain straight faces while talking about boobies and butts, jiggles and stinks. It must've been like a Kindergarten playground.

How do they do it? One can only assume alcohol is involved, but how depressing would it be to meet with a Creative Director and show her a reel like this? Hell, if you showed her your award-winning work for The Back Up, she might even back slowly away and call security.



So my question is, are there any adpeople out there who have actually worked in the infomercial genre? And how's that working out for you?

Shock done right

I caught this on Adfreak earlier this week, and even though it's old news to some of you, I wanted to share:



What I love about it is that it uses exaggerated crudity and smut to get attention, then rewards us with a true surprise.

There's lots of ads out there that push the limits of broadening social acceptance of nasty sex talk — but in this case, it actually does more than try to shock. It has a strong strategic message. I love it.

I'm also pretty sure the Copywriter is a fan of Eating Raoul. The lady's delivery reminds me quite a bit of John Paragon as the Sex Shop Clerk, giving Paul Bartel a hard time as he offers him his choice of toys such as The Salami, the Man-o'-War and The Alien, and the Ben-Wa Dancing Egg, and utters the classic line: "Le Orgy Gel comes in lemon, mint, cherry or trail mix..."

Speaking of shock, Acart had its Halloween office party today. You can check out pics on our Facebook page.

The genius box

In a news release that shocked nobody, The Nielsen Co. reported that young children are watching more TV now than in any year since 1995. This includes DVDs and PVRed shows. Thirty-two hours a week, on average.

Now, I don't pretend to be the world's greatest parent. Like everyone else, I'm making it up as I go along. We have certain things we are careful about: nutrition (mostly homemade food, organic when it counts), physical safety, streetsmarts, exercise, athletic skills, socialization. But on other things, we are more like our parents. And TV is one of them.

At Four years, 11 months, and change, Ladman loves to watch television. I don't think he's up to 32 hours a week, but he does love to tune in when he gets up in the morning, and right after school. I did the same, when I was a kid, so it doesn't seem that harmful to me. Hell, I work in advertising. I'm cynical that way.

What's different with my son is his viewing habits. When I was a kid, I loved nature and science documentaries. So did my wife. And so, naturally, does he. But while we had to wait for our weekly dose of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, he gets his shows on demand, recorded on PVR, or purchased on DVD. Over and over again.

Some favourites have been the whole BBC Walking With Dinosaurs franchise, as well as the many nature shows produced and/or narrated by David Attenborough (Blue Planet, Life in Cold Blood, Planet Earth). Recently, he has started to gravitate towards nature adventurers like the Crocodile Hunter (we don't tell him how that one ended), Snakemaster, Nigel Marven,Jules Sylvester, and Rob Bredl.



One that I'm not entirely sure of is "Bite Me" with Dr. Mike Leahy. This guy's a masochistic virologist who allows himself to get bitten, stung, envenomated and parasitized by some of the world's creepiest crawlies. Considering Ladman managed to get stung by a jellyfish and bitten by a garter snake this summer, I'm not sure this is a great influence.

But what I'm getting at here is that TV is like anything. It's the content that matters. My son exercises, socializes, gets read to, plays imaginative games (with rubber snakes or live bugs, of course!)... but he also enjoys his shows. And, as a result of watching guys with PhDs and nature nuts run around in khakis, he has a picked up a surprisingly rich scientific vocabulary for a kid his age.

The downside is that the TV shows on National Geographic and other channels are full of commercials, so we get constant advice from the boy as to which brand of yogurt or paper towels we should be buying. He's a sucker for ads. Karma's a bitch.

The thing that really amazed me happened just last night. He insisted on taking a small plastic baggie with him into the bath. (He loves playing with water.) He kept filling it up, and squeezing the water out, over and over again, until he turned to me and said "Dad! Look! This is how my heart works!"

You win this one, television.

Taking work home with you sucks

As social issues marketers, we often hit on issues that also affect our personal lives. But yesterday, the convergence was almost too much to handle.

For those who don't know, we've been working with the Public Health Agency of Canada on H1N1 pandemic preparedness ads pretty much since "swine flu" (we don't call it that) first hit the headlines. I'm actually working on the next phase of the campaign right now, getting ready to record a radio PSA.

With all my involvement telling others how to prepare, I always wondered in the back of my mind how I would react to H1N1 in my household.

Well, last weekend my (almost 5-year-old) son developed a sore throat, then aches, then a cough. He just lay around all day, not moving or eating much. By Sunday night he had a high fever. At the same time, my health was also going downhill but not as dramatically.

Of course, we spent the night looking up info on H1N1 symptoms and watching him breathe. No respiratory distress other than congestion, but it was still a scary vigil. Kids have died of this thing. Local kids. Unless you're a parent, it's hard to understand what it's like worrying about a very sick child. You wish you could take it upon yourself.

When morning came, he was the same but stable. Advil had brought the fever down to moderate levels. I tried to be a good and brave citizen, and instead of rushing to emergency I stayed home and called my family doctor's office. Amazingly, my doc himself phoned back and went over the symptoms and timelines with me.

If there are any other worried parents out there, let this be my own personal PSA.

Know the symptoms

Almost always:

• Cough and fever

Common:

• Fatigue
• Muscle aches
• Sore throat
• Headache
• Decreased appetite
• Runny nose

Sometimes:

• Nausea
• Vomitting
• Diarrhea

If you get flu-like symptoms and are pregnant or have underlying health problems contact your healthcare provider.

If you get flu-like symptoms and are otherwise healthy, you should stay home to recover. If your symptoms worsen or you experience difficulty breathing or serious shortness of breath, it is important to seek medical attention.

From fightflu.ca

The American flu site adds the following cautions:

What are the emergency warning signs?

In children

• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
• Fever with a rash

In adults

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Sudden dizziness
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting

The CDC site also has an online self-diagnosis tool: link.

By the way, I'm really glad I called my doctor. "Not H1N1", he said. The onset of symptoms was too slow, and it wasn't severe enough. Apparently a bad — but less novel — respiratory infection has been going around. The Ladman is still lounging away at home today, but he's slowly recovering. We were told to keep monitoring, and if he doesn't get better in a couple of days—or worse, seems better then suddenly relapses— we need to go back for medical care.

I won't get into questions about the flu vaccine (which I guess he'll still need to get) here. I just wanted to remind everyone to get your information from trusted sources, stay vigilant, keep calm, don't run to the ER at the first sign of trouble... and try not to take your work home with you.

Showing our support

As you probably know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.


As a Social Issues Marketing agency, we wanted to show our support in a creative way. So, after some brainstorming, Cause Loop (Acart's employee-run corporate social responsibility committee) decided that we'd have a "wear a pink bra to work day" to raise awareness among our colleagues, clients, and social networks.




So here I am, typing this blog in my office in the tender embrace of a 42D pink bra.

In the spirit of viral campaigns like that by MTV's Aliya Jasmine Sovani, we wanted this to be a celebration of compassion and awareness for and of breast health, rather than a sad occasion.



We thought our modestly clothed brassiere approach would be a little less controversial, but in promoting the event internally we got some cautionary feedback from a few colleagues who felt our silly focus on ladies' underthings could offend some cancer survivors — or family and friends living with the loss of a loved one from the disease. Those of us who chose to participate mean no offence to anyone; but if any is taken, please understand that our hearts are in the right place.




Another question is why we are pushing for "awareness" of an issue that is high on the radar, rather than soliciting funds. We are actually taking donations in the office, and encouraging everyone who sees this to donate to the cancer charity of their choice. However, as social marketers we wanted to give something special from Acart's key resources: our creativity, commitment, and compassion.

The facts:

This year, an estimated 22,700 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,400 will die of it. (An estimated 180 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 50 will die of it.)

One in 9 women is expected to develop breast cancer during her lifetime and one in 28 will die of it.

Most women who develop breast cancer have no risk factors other than simply being a woman and getting older.

So enjoy these pictures. There are more on Facebook. We'll also be releasing a video of our exploits next week. Laugh at us, or laugh with us. But we're happy you took the time to think about an important issue that isn't going away.

And most importantly... mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, nieces, wives, lovers, friends: Take care of your breasts. Check in on their health. And stay well.

Donations can be made at the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, Rethink Breast Cancer, or anywhere else you find worthy.