NEW YORK Saatchi & Saatchi’s new effort for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Verb” campaign features children playing with professional athletes and carries the message that you don’t have to be good at a game to have fun playing it.
Three spots by the New York shop show children playing games with tennis player Venus Williams, San Jose Earthquakes soccer forward Landon Donovan and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
In the McNabb spot, breaking in the fall, McNabb plays football with kids who keep calling different plays, like the “lightning” and the “trashcan” that he doesn’t know. In a spot that broke last week, Donovan plays soccer with a group of children who have a special point system that is mystifying to the Major League Soccer star. And in Williams’ spot, which broke in May, Williams plays tennis with two girls who declare that anything that hits the court in the shade is out.
The first round of the “Verb” effort, which broke in October 2003, introduced the “Verb—it’s what you do” campaign to kids. “It was saying, there’s this cool thing called ‘Verb’ out there,” said agency art director Moss Freedman.
The second round, which broke in December, and the current series are designed to get kids “motivated and find fun ways to play,” said Dave Shea, creative director and copywriter on the campaign.
“You can be physically active, even if you’re not good at something,” Shea added. “There’s no wrong way to play.”
Graeme Joyce of Untitled directed the spots. He was chosen because “he had a sense of play in his directing,” Freedman said, specifically a Nike spot he directed showing a kid volleying a tennis ball against a wall by himself.
Other ads in the campaign direct children (the target demo is kids, 9-13) to the Web site (www.verbnow.com) and show each of the athletes performing a signature move. For example, Williams shows how she serves the tennis ball.
Pro Athletes Spread the 'Verb'
