Viewers first learned about the condition Connectile Dysfunction during the Super Bowl. In a thinly veiled parody of erectile dysfunction infomercials, the spot, created by Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, shows a business traveler at an airport sitting in a corner frustrated because he can’t connect to the Internet where and when he wants to due to inadequate broadband coverage. Luckily the cure is revealed: Sprint Mobile Broadband connection cards.
Now the brand is spreading the cure for “CD” even further with a customizable viral video and microsite curecd.com. The microsite introduces visitors to the Connectile Dysfunction Treatment Center, an online clinic where sufferers are greeted by vivacious Nurse Debbie. From there they can meet the center’s kooky, recovering patients by taking a tour of the facility.
In the Body Therapy section, we see patients getting physically prepared to reconnect with the world. In Group Therapy, CD sufferers are shown rebuilding their confidence destroyed by dysfunction. And in Isolation Therapy, visitors can watch patients cleanse their minds of CD’s ill effects.
Before going on a tour, visitors are given the opportunity to personalize and send a video to an aquaintance who might be suffering from CD. The recipient will receive a link to the video customized with personal information like, name, partner’s name, industry they work in and where they live. The sultry Dr. Cate McManus of the CDTC playfully hints at their difficulty getting and maintaining an Internet connection in a curiously intimate way.
“We wanted it to feel like the nurse knows all about the person to cut through the usual B to B clutter that’s out there,” said Dominic Goldman, senior VP/creative director at Publicis & Riney, pointing out that B to B doesn’t have to be boring.
It also doesn’t have to be about “ramming products down customers throats.”
“The interesting thing about the site is there is very little branding. Sprint is only mentioned when you click on the Find a Cure brochure and from there you can visit sprint.com,” explained Goldman. “We felt like that allowed the piece to feel less like advertising and a hard sell and to get under people’s radars and entertain them. We were very pleased Sprint agreed to this.”
Kudos go to the actors for the entertainment value of the project. Goldman pointed out that Nurse Debbie ad libs for six minutes while people are filling out the form to admit a friend. “She was fantastic. Those characters really help bring this to life. It could have been quite flat if they didn’t,” he said.
He also praised the work of copywriter Paul Mimiaga and writer/director Lee Einhorn of Mekanism, San Francisco. The company was tapped because it could handle all the technical issues of building the site as well as the directing responsibilities.
Goldman was excited about the level of casting and production values that brought this idea to life. “It was almost like a full TV shoot for a website,” he said.
Michelle Satter To Be Honored At Sundance Film Festival Gala
The nonprofit Sundance Institute today announced details for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s gala fundraiser, Celebrating Sundance Institute, which will take place on Friday, January 24, 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah. The event will be an evening in celebration of Michelle Satter, founding sr. director of artist programs at Sundance Institute, for her longstanding commitment to nurturing artists and cultivating independent film through the Sundance Labs, where visionary artists convene to develop groundbreaking projects through an in-depth creative process, for the past four decades. The annual Vanguard Awards will be presented during the evening to Sean Wang, writer and director of Dìdi, and Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, co-directors of Sugarcane, who premiered their films at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The annual gala enables the nonprofit to raise funds to support independent artists year-round through labs, grants, and public programming that nurture artists from all over the world. The 2025 event is made possible with the generous support of Google TV. The Festival will take place from January 23–February 2, 2025, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online from January 30–February 2, 2025 for audiences across the country to discover bold independent storytelling.
“For over four decades Michelle has been devoted to truly championing independent storytellers,” said Amanda Kelso, acting CEO of Sundance Institute. “She has encouraged artists to own their voice, learn their craft, become fierce leaders, and develop their resilience in our changing ecosystem. Her life-long commitment to supporting artists, especially in underrepresented... Read More