A woman is about to leave her house to go to work. But she needs to take care of one last detail–not her hair, not to make sure her commuter mug is full of coffee, not even checking that she has her automobile keys. Instead she takes a deep breath and holds it just prior to opening the front door and running out to her car which is parked curbside.
She doesn’t exhale until she gets into the car with the windows rolled up.
Next stop on her commute is a drive-through window of a restaurant. She lowers her driver side window a smidge, holds her breath again–this time for but an instant–before blurting out her order, a large no-foam, sugar free vanilla latte of some sort. She then holds her breath until her car window is again fully up.
Finally she’s arrived at work–or at least at the parking lot. She holds her breath, jumps out of the car and starts running toward her office building off in the distance.
But the jaunt is too far for her to hold her breath the entire time so she takes an exhale break by diving into the passenger seat of a stranger’s car. The stranger is in the driver’s seat having a morning cup of coffee. He’s a bit perplexed at the sight of the woman. She smiles at him, doesn’t say a word, takes a deep breath, holds it, and bolts out of the vehicle towards her office.
A voiceover relates that Maricopa County is facing an air pollution crisis and urges us to visit RunningOutofAir.com for tips on what residents of that Arizona community can do to help clean the air.
Titled “Anti-Breathing,” this ad which uses the comedic to inform us about the tragic was directed by the duo known as Peter Martin–a.k.a. Peter Livolsi and Martin Dix–of Santa Monica-based Harvest for Phoenix ad agency Riester.
Bonnie Goldfarb and Scott Howard executive produced for Harvest. Rob Sexton served as head of production and Denise Hagerman as line producer. The DP was Eric West.
The Riester team included executive creative director Tom Ortega, associate creative director Ben Dveirin, senior copywriter Troy Pottgen and broadcast producer Linda Hart.
Editor was Mark Trengove of Blade, Phoenix.
Depressing stats The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Maricopa County Air Quality Department are sponsoring the campaign, the centerpiece of which is “Anti-Breathing.” The board was spurred into action by several sad statistics, including:
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, the average hospital stay for state residents with asthma was 3.2 days in 2005. That same year, the number of Arizona residents having respiratory operations was 19,655. Furthermore, per a survey by Transportation Demand Management in Arizona, the percentage of Maricopa Valley residents who still drive to work alone and don’t carpool is a whopping 91 percent.
The latter stat is subtly acknowledged in the spot as each of the two drivers we see is alone in his or her vehicle.
“Maricopa County faces a crisis with air pollution and without the support of our residents we take the risk of running out of clean air,” said Andrew Kunasek, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 3. “We are asking that everyone in the County make the commitment to learn what they can do, take action, and make it a healthier place for all of us.”
Five percent plan The RunningOutofAir.com website urges people and businesses to change their habits to improve air quality. Among the suggestions are:
• Use a rake or a broom rather than a leaf blower.
• Consolidate errands to cut down on multiple car trips.
• Don’t use wood burning fireplaces, especially on high pollution advisory days.
• And conserve electricity.
RunningOutofAir.com will create a social network of Maricopa County residents who have committed to take action to help reduce their negative effects on air quality. With these simple suggestions applied to everyone, Maricopa County can meet its goal of reducing dust particulates by five percent each year for the next three years, as outlined in the Maricopa County Association of Governments’ five percent plan.
