On Tuesday we turned you on to a local New York organization called Agencies in Action, whose latest mission is to feed the hungry in New York. Part of their work includes producing the ads you see all this post. The posters went up today on the streets surrounding some of New York’s biggest agencies.
The project is headed up by Cossette’s creative honcho Bill Oberlander. I’ll be honest, when I met Bill last year I didn’t take him for the kind of guy who’d spearhead a project like this — he’s a really nice guy but considering he’s trying to get Cossette on the map here in the US, we didn’t figure he’d have the time. But in advertising things are rarely as they seem, and we’re glad that’s true in this case because it’s time we all stood up and helped one another survive.
I know there are countless addies out there doing good in their daily lives — and agencies too. In fact I fully expect to get flooded with e-mails from agency reps telling me about all the good stuff they do. Yes, send me the deets (matt@mediabistro.com), I want to know about them.
Things are so sh*tty these days that I think it would do us all some good to read about the positive side of advertising — even if all it amounts to is 6 people from Agency X scooping hash-browns on a Tuesday morning. When your career revolves around convincing people to give up their money for something they probably don’t need (or writing about the sordid tales of the people whose job is to convince people to give up their money for something they probably don’t need) it can’t hurt to walk the other direction for a few hours. In fact, it might inspire you to think of other ways to do good.
I think one of the lessons of Steffan Postaer’s book The Happy Soul Industry is that you can’t campaign for goodness and expect it to happen. You have to be a leader; remind the world (or the industry) that a helping hand is needed most when life looks bleaker than you’ve ever seen it. Go to this site and figure out how you can help. Go, now!
By the way we’re planning on following a few of the AIA volunteer shops around when they volunteer. So e-mail me if you or your agency are planning a volunteer day — and we’ll do our best to show up and snap a few pics. Again, matt@mediabistro.com.