Client: Lance Armstrong Foundation, Austin, Texas
Agency: Gsd&M, Austin
Copywriter: Mike Woolf
Art Director: Juan Perez
Producers: Jessica Coats, Dan Brown
There’s a new weapon in the war against cancer. Spandex.” So begins a print ad whose sole visual is a cyclist photographed from behind. The observation is part of a pro bono campaign for a charity bike ride in Austin, Texas. GSD&M developed three print ads and a television spot for the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Ride for the Roses on May 23. Armstrong, a former Olympian and world champion cyclist who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996, returned to the cycling circuit this spring. His foundation – and the bike ride it sponsors – raises money for the prevention of urological cancer. Asked to boost turnout over last year’s inaugural event, GSD&M also created a 30-second TV spot that opens on what appears to be a cancer cell as a voiceover says, “You are a cancer cell. You are pushy. Hungry. Restless.” As the visual comes into focus, it is revealed to be a cyclist riding on a barren stretch of desert. The spot, airing locally, ends with registration details. – Steve Krajewski
Client: Santa Rosa Health Care, San Antonio
Agency: The Atkins Agency, San Antonio
Creative Director: Tom Norman
Copywriter: Travis Waid
Art Director: Kiki Lindholm
Director: Greg Kiefer
Producers: Jenny Wolk, Diana Frazier
Santa Rosa has been a longtime fixture in San Antonio, but its inclusion in the Incarnate Word Health System is much more recent. The Atkins Agency tackled the assignment of blending the hospital’s history and nonprofit mission with its parent organization via a series of four 60-second television commercials, two in English and two in Spanish. The ads primarily utilize children and the fulfillment of their promise as the theme behind the hospital’s goal, spelled out in the “We’re here for life” tagline. On-screen copy includes statements from children, like “I am part of the world around me,” while hospital officials appear in the commercials to voice the medical system’s commitment to the patient as a person. “Whether we’re very, very rich or whether we’re very, very poor, what really is of value is that person who we are,” says one administrator. The television effort is supplemented by 60-second, multilingual radio commercials as well as outdoor and print advertising components. The campaign will run throughout 1998. – Glen Fest
Client: Miller Brewing, Milwaukee,
Agency: Square One, Dallas
Creative Directors: Tom Hansen, Tim Murphy
Art Directors: Murphy, James Helms
Copywriters: Hansen, Jim Wegerbauer
Producer: Karen Junkins
Director: Jama
Red Dog has returned to the television airwaves with the same attitude but a different bark. The Miller Brewing-owned beer retains its no-bull stance, but missing from most of the ads, besides the previous use of narrative rips from actor Tommy Lee Jones, is the presence of the bulldog character from the brand’s mid-’90s advertising campaign. Substituting for the trademark spokesmutt are some rough-edged visuals and a presentation of various “rules for a living.” For example, in one 15-second television commercial currently airing nationwide, the camera follows a few women in a bar. “Every dog loves a good chase,” the voiceover says. Another ad with a bar-oriented theme seems to be inclined toward teaching pub etiquette. With shots of a bartender and a tip jar, the on-screen rule states, “Never bite the hand that serves you.” When a tip is properly given, a “Good boy” voiceover ends the spot. A third spot is a packaging promotion for Red Dog’s 18-pack product, noting that “Cattle travel in herds, sheep travel in flocks . . . but dogs travel in packs.” Additional TV spots will launch this summer and into 1999, continuing the Red Dog rules theme. The tagline, replacing the former “Be your own dog,” is: “Let the dog out.” – G.F.
New Campaigns
