NEW CAMPAIGNS: NEW ENGLAND Client: Boston Fire Department

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, New York
Creative Director: Bruce Lee
Copywriter: John Kenney
Art Director: Ared Spendjian
Producer: Anne Gordon

No memorial was erected when nine firefighters died in the Vendome Hotel blaze, one of the most infamous disasters in recent Boston history. Now, 25 years later, a pro-bono campaign created by John Kenney, the son and grandson of Boston firefighters, invites the public to attend the memorial service that was never held. The 60-second spot, running for three weeks on Hub network affiliates WBZ-TV and WCVB-TV, relives the day with the sound of fire alarms, sirens and police radios playing in the background. Black copy flashes on a white background reads, “June 17, 1972 . . . The southeast corner of the Vendome Hotel collapses . . . Every day, something remarkable happens when a fire alarm sounds.
Ordinary men and women do extraordinary things. They choose to step into the inferno to save human life. Sometimes they don’t step out.” A full-page ad also ran in The Boston Globe. “It’s rare that you have the opportunity to work on something as pure as this,” noted copywriter Kenney.-Sarah Jones

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Client: Cousin Bill’s, Boston
Agency: Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston
Creative Directors: Jamie Mambro and Ernie Schenck
Art Director: Larry Bowdish
Copywriter: Jay Nelson
Photographer: Christopher Harting

What’s old is new again-not to mention hip. That is why Cousin Bill’s can sell items from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s and be cool. The storefront, located in Boston’s Fort Point Channel, caught the eye of Hill, Holliday copywriter Jay Nelson while he was wandering around town, killing time before a meeting. Nelson approached the owner and volunteered to help create ads. The work, which targets primarily college students and young professionals, uses ’70s lettering and art deco logos. One execution features a giant silver lighter, with the body copy reading, “In the ’60s, they protested against the establishment. They demonstrated against the war. They had really cool lighters to burn their draft cards. You can have all the things they had in the ’60s, except for the chance to get drafted.” Another ad positions a Barbie doll, a record, a toy gun and a truck around the body copy, which reads, “Know all that stuff your parents gave away? Want to buy it back?” At the bottom, smaller copy continues, “You won’t believe the cool old things we have. Hey, maybe you used to own some of it.” Posters and direct mail will be sent to area colleges. -Sarah Jones

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Client: Franklin Pierce College, Ringe, N.H.
Agency: Filias Advertising, Portsmouth, N.H.
Creative Director: Greg Filias
Copywriters: Greg Filias (radio), Joey Barron (radio, print), Joe Higgins (print), Lance Helms (print)
Art director: Joe Higgins (print)

Filias Advertising’s first work for the Division of Graduate and Professional Studies at Franklin Pierce College attempts “to show the type of student that would benefit from a college like Franklin Pierce” and its continuing education programs, said agency president Greg Filias. One ad shows a young mother who in one day gets the kids to school, balances the family checkbook and attends her managerial finance course. The next day, she goes to an office meeting, picks up the groceries and makes it to class. The campaign uses the tagline, “Live and learn.” Print executions are running in The Boston Globe, The Manchester Union Leader and other local newspapers and magazines, and radio spots are breaking throughout the Granite State. The campaign will run for the rest of the year. -David Gianatasio