The lead entry in last week’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (SHOOT, 6/18, p. 11) consisted of home movie footage taken at a zoo. Titled "Gorilla," the spot shows people visiting the various animal attractions.
A super against a black background reads, "In 1996, a three-year-old fell into a Chicago zoo’s gorilla cage."
Suddenly, other zoo-goers are looking down at the gorilla habitat, where a human toddler is laid out on the ground.
The next super relates, "A gorilla carried him to safety and waited until he could be rescued."
The home movie footage shows the gorilla cradling—and seemingly comforting—the fallen child.
A parting super then asks rhetorically, "If a gorilla can protect a child, why can’t we?"
An end tag contains a logo for the spot’s Austin, Texas-based sponsor, The Center For Child Protection, accompanied by a phone number and Web site address (www.centerforchildprotection.org).
Ad agency The Peace Council came up with the idea of using the footage from that famous incident in ’96 during which a gorilla named Binti Jua actually saved a little boy’s life. The footage was donated anonymously to The Peace Council by a person who was lensing at the zoo during that time and wanted the film to be used toward a good cause; in this case, to benefit The Center For Child Protection, a Peace Council client.
The Peace Council is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to creating advertising that helps raise awareness about issues of social consequence. The key movers behind The Peace Council are Daniel Russ and Brent Ladd, whose day jobs are as senior VPs/group creative directors at GSD&M, Austin. Their Peace Council endeavors are separate from their duties at GSD&M.
"Gorilla" was conceived to advance the charter mission of The Center For Child Protection—which is to reduce trauma for victims of child abuse during the investigation and prosecution of their cases. The Center For Child Protection provides a homelike, child-centered environment where kids who have reported abuse, along with their protective caregivers, can go for evaluation, crisis intervention, evidence gathering and counseling. All services are provided at no charge.
The Center For Child Protection is just one of several Peace Council clients. Since its inception in 1997, The Peace Council has addressed assorted other issues—including racism, the proliferation of land mines worldwide, AIDS, education, freedom of information and nuclear waste—on behalf of worthwhile organizations.
This latest ad, "Gorilla," again underscores the power of great creative advertising for doing good in the world at large. I remember talking last year with Sandra Martin, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center, which has since become The Center For Child Protection. She discussed the importance of her group having access to advertising and marketing savvy.
"Before we started with The Peace Council, we were bumbling around in the dark in terms of how to raise public consciousness," related Martin. "But The Peace Council has created advertising that puts the child abuse problem right in people’s faces. It’s like we offered Brent, Daniel and the people at The Peace Council the most lucrative contract imaginable, but in reality we pay them nothing. They are overwhelmingly generous in terms of their time, caring, talent and skill."
