This ad has 22 minutes of fame

I've always told my clients that the best indicator of a campaign's success will be if it is parodied by Rick Mercer.

Well, we almost made it.

Last night, This Hour Has 22 Minutes spoofed our latest H1N1 TV ad, starring Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones:



(Link in text above — it's not on YouTube yet.)

Okay, so that parody version is not THH22M's best work. (Their PHAC "proper sneezing" spoof was somewhat better.) The best they've got is that "we bought too much vaccine" and "this flu was a bust". Hardly biting satire, considering that we're talking about the global pandemic we've been bracing ourselves for years for being less deadly than anticipated.

(The "mildness" of the pandemic is hardly a comfort to the loved ones of its 14,000+ victims worldwide, and the World Health Organization says we shouldn't let our guard down just yet, either.)

While I realize it is fun to joke about what a "fail" of a pandemic H1N1 is, I also believe that we need to stay alert and protected from preventable harm. And that's what good primary health care is all about – reducing risk and keeping people healthy.

As ad people, we try not to take ourselves too seriously. And the imitation is quite flattering. And we realize that getting the shot, or not, is your call. But I think it's a tip of the hat to our Chief Public Health Officer that as a passionate and concerned advocate of scientific approaches to managing public health, his message didn't exactly pan out to be comedy gold for the CBC's political jesters.

Oh, and speaking of Rick Mercer, here was his take on the efficacy of seasonal flu shots four years ago:



God, 22 Minutes must miss him. I know I do. If you're going to take a shot at a social marketing campaign, at least bring the wicked funny.

Jumping on the flu bandwagon

It seems nobody is above opportunistic marketing to a germ-frightened population.

Clorox and Lysol clearly had a lot to gain from their products' germophobic appeal. From Google Adwords to cheesy commercials, they were right on it:



The biggest concern for consumers, though, is fake flu cures that promise miracles and yet often do more harm than good.

With that in mind, I was a little shocked to see the following ad on my bus yesterday:




(Sorry for the poor quality — I didn't want to use flash in a bus full of commuters. Click for larger versions.)

I understand that faith is a powerful thing, but is it really appropriate for a religious group to promise unscientific medical benefits from prayer? I don't want to sound bigoted, but I think a line has been crossed. IMHO, religious freedom shouldn't allow anyone to sucker the easily-influenced into giving up medical treatment in the name of faith, any more than a free market should allow snake oil salesmen to sell fake "cures" in mainstream ad venues.

I know I run a lot of ads on this blog that offend people. But now I've finally been offended. Good job, Christian Science!

What do you think?

Behind the scenes at the flu shot shoot

Last Friday, I posted our latest TV campaign for the Public Health Agency of Canada.



For those of you who aren't in the advertising or production world, it would be quite an eye-opener to see what actually goes into making those 30 seconds.



This ad was shot over three separate days in two cities — Ottawa and Montreal. The main reason for this is that Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, is himself extremely busy managing Canada's response to H1N1. So we had to shoot him in his Ottawa office on Saturday morning, just as he was about to catch yet another flight.



A funny 6 degrees of separation thing happened to me at the shoot. The night before, I was talking to my Mom on the phone and mentioned we were shooting Dr. David Butler-Jones. She said, "there can't be two of them — ask him if he ever lived in Kingston." So I did, and it turned out he was a friend of the family when I was just a kid, attending my parents' church and even visiting us at our cottage. Small world.

The balance of the commercial was cast, shot, and produced in Montreal, where the production house SOMA is located. We do a lot of shooting in Montreal because it's handier to Ottawa than Toronto, and its homegrown movie industry means that it's brimming with talent and resources.

Shoot day two was the following Monday, in a house in the north end of Montreal, for the scene between the man and his pregnant wife. This was an important human touch for the ad, since all the other scenes were in a more clinical context. It was also the one where the interplay between the actors was most crucial.

This is why it might be kind of surprising that the husband-wife scene is the only one in which there is a different actor in the French and English versions.

Most of our government ads are silent shoots, since the verbal information is dubbed in voiceover. But this one had actors speaking on camera. Usually, that would require double casting of each speaking role. But Montreal is different. All of our roles but one were filled by fluently bilingual actors. The sole exception was the husband.



See if you can see a difference in the way the actors play the scene together:



Day three was the "clinic" scenes of a doctor's office, and a public immunization clinic, both shot in a vacant office building in downtown Montreal. I wasn't present for this day of shooting, but it looks like the team was getting pretty tired by that point.



Following the actual shoot, the offline edit was done on Wednesday. This is the point at which the commercial actually comes together in recognizable (if rough) form. Acart people are both on-site at the studio, and watching cuts remotely, to approve the edit for client consumption.

Following the offline, new edits had to be made before the commercial went to final colour correction and online (broadcast-ready) approval. We also had to brief a composer for original music, and get every aspect of production approved.

It's great to have this ad on the air in time for the Christmas season, which is a particular concern for public health officials during a pandemic.

Check out more production pics here.

One of our more in-flu-ential campaigns

While press coverage of the H1N1 pandemic makes it sound as if it has made slow progress so far, with almost 10,000 deaths worldwide the need for personal prevention and public vigilance remains as strong as ever. The holiday season is a particular concern, with people moving all over the country (and all over the world) to spend time in close quarters with loved ones.

Acart has been working with the Public Health Agency of Canada on pandemic advertising plans since before H1N1 hit last spring. Because of the changing nature of the global situation, most of our outreach has been in the more agile media, such as online, radio, and print.



But the need for vaccination was something that could be anticipated far enough in advance to plan a TV shoot. So in November, we filmed these spots in Ottawa and Montreal with Soma and Director Claude Brie.

The result, launched yesterday, was a confident and empathetic — yet urgent — call to action on behalf of Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones (as well as actors portraying a variety of health professionals and everyday people).


We're proud to help spread the word about stopping the spread of H1N1. Want to know more about how a commercial like this comes together? Tune in Monday for a "making of" blog post with behind-the-scenes photos, footage and tales from the set.

Stay healthy.

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.

Fun with H1N1?

Here at Acart, we're busy executing the Public Health Agency of Canada's H1N1 preparedness campaign's fall flight. As you can imagine, we follow all advertising developments involving this issue quite thoroughly.

A recent news search brought up this fun user-generated video by John D. Clarke, MD:



Dr. Clarke is the winner of the Center for Disease Control's H1N1 PSA Contest. Voted most popular video by viewers, he won $2,500 and will have his PSA aired nationally.

This contest has got people talking about H1N1 prevention, and now the CDC gets to pay just $2,500 in talent fees for a national commercial that already has buzz. I only wish we had thought of it first.

An actual advertising emergency

Blogging Emergency Preparedness Week was something I had been planning to do as part of promoting our work for Public Safety Canada, but I can't let the coincidence of the swine flu epidemic pass me by. Especially since it's now in Ottawa.

You see, we're actually working on the crisis communications for the Public Health Agency of Canada, creating ads like this in your local paper:



These ads are part of a strategic readiness plan that we have been involved in for some time. The Government of Canada has been planning its social marketing along with other measures for dealing with pandemic flu since the avian influenza scares of a few years past. What's important now is to get authoritative, factual information about infection control in peoples' hands (literally!) to counter the mass hysteria that's burning through the social media.

One great tool for us so far has been Google AdWords, reaching people as they search for more information.

This is an important time to be a social marketer, so rather than blathering on about advertising insights today, I'd just like you to get the facts.

Please visit fightflu.ca for the latest information on H1N1, don't panic, and take care.