"Our idea was to mobilize the worldwide advertising community to use its main strength, the power of persuasion," explains Hervé de Clerck, "Dream Leader" of AdForum.com, the advertising portal that has launched this initiative in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
In a few weeks, creative people from all around the world responded to this initiative by sending campaigns, giving the best of themselves: their talent. Immediately after the launch of the ACT operation, associations, trade press, creative awards organizers, and advertising related websites advertised the program named "It's Our Business To Help" and strongly contributed to the flow of solidarity.
Today there are over a hundred creative pieces and proposals for help, coming from thirty countries around the world that fight violence and terrorism, that motivate donations to the Red Cross or that are offered to charities. Hundreds of members of the advertising community have offered their work and professional help and more than twenty media companies have joined the ACT initiative, proposing free media spaces to publish the ads.
Exhibitions of ACT campaigns were organized in Paris in November, New York in April, during the International Advertising Festival in Cannes last June, and another exhibition is organized in Chile this September. Journalists from everywhere have covered the ACT initiative and spread the word to the creative people in their countries.
Thanks to all involved the ACT initiative is a great success that continues in 2002 with a new campaign launched in cooperation with the IFRC and centered on fighting discrimination and promoting tolerance.
To commemorate the first anniversary of September 11th and to honor the victims, AdForum.com will publish ACT creative pieces on its homepage during the week of September 9th. "With you, Advertising Community Together remembers and continues!"
All of the ACT campaigns are presented on: www.adforum.com/ACT911
More information at: www.adforum.com/specialevents/youcanhelp/index.asp.
