April 25, 2009

"I Never Knew... All You Do"

One of the people in the American Cancer Society commercials running on tv says this, and I can't help but think that ASAE & The Center is trying to make sure people aren't saying this about associations with their "The Power of A" campaign.

My question - couldn't the organization have actually shown what associations are doing in this commercial that will be run tomorrow (Sunday) in the DC area, as opposed to essentially closed captioning what the person is saying in it?

I like the message that it gives - that associations and their millions of members will be invaluable assets to solve this nation's problems. But, an opportunity was missed to actually show it. The great thing about the American Cancer Society ads that I mentioned earlier is that they have what are supposed to be real people who have been helped by the Society telling the story. It's compelling, and gets the message across.

My hope is that there are more pointed commercials that are developed and run that actually tell the stories of associations making a difference. That would show their power. Granted, if people actually decide to make it to the web site, there are a few stories there, but even the site is pretty sparse in showing how associations are making a difference. (I see six stories there right now.)

Again, I LOVE the message that ASAE is trying to get across AND that they have taken this effort on... I also know that it's easy to criticize from out here in the cheap seats. I hope this is seen as constructive criticism! I just think that the implementation missed the mark a bit, and perhaps it would have been valuable to reach out and ask what some of the members (communications professionals specifically) thought about the campaign's commercial before launching it.

If this did happen and I missed it, I go back to my original subject "I Never Knew... All You Do!"

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