TORONTO, CANADA. LOWE ROCHE, ALS Society of Canada’s new pro bono advertising agency, received the Exceptional Public Awareness Program Award in the media category at an awards ceremony in Toronto on May 2, 2009. LOWE ROCHE created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign in 2008 to raise public awareness of ALS.
The powerful PSA campaign consists of 30- and 60- second television spots in English and French and a series of three print advertisements. The campaign pulls no punches: the television spots, set to the children’s song “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” graphically documents the degeneration caused by this devastating disease. The print ads use simple, childish chalk drawings to illustrate the break-down in communication between the brain and the body of people living with ALS.
The spots have aired on local and national networks in Canada, on YouTube, where they have been viewed more than 36,000 times, and they have been posted in advertising blogs around the world. When the PSA campaign first appeared in November 2008, Jennifer Wells made this comment in her blog on globeandmail.com:
The Exceptional Public Awareness Program Award recognizes exceptional programs that aim to educate the public and increase awareness of ALS. Activities in this category may include liaising with the media, coordinating public awareness displays and public speaking.
