• by Les Luchter , October 23, 2023

“Law and Order” star Christopher Meloni, seen in these pages a year ago working out naked for Peloton and then copping to using Tommie Copper’s pain relief products, now takes to New York City’s Times Square on a :15 digital billboard wraparound PSA from nonprofit Global Lyme Alliance (GlA) that’s sponsored by medical diagnostics company QuidelOrtho.

The billboard, at Broadway and West 43d St. plays from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. at least four times an hour through New Year’s Eve, Lindsy Swift, GLA’s director of marketing and communications, tells Marketing Daily. That translates to a minimum of 7,360 spots.

On one side of the wraparound, Meloni appears to speak as his words appear alongside.

“Lyme disease can be a horrible, painful chronic condition robbing kids of their childhood and adults of their livelihood,”Meloni begins. “Half a million people are diagnosed with it each year in all 50 states. Global Lyme Alliance has a plan. They have hope. They have help.”

The other side of the wraparound hosts a static ad from QuidelOrtho, reading “The best way to fight Lyme disease is early detection. QuidelOrtho is here to help. Changing lives one test at a time.”

Both sections of the ad include a QR code, one going to GLA.com, the other to a QuidelOrtho site with info on the company’s rapid Lyme detection test. Available at doctors’ offices or pharmacies, the test can detect Lyme disease in just 15 minutes.

Swift says that Meloni, whose family has been impacted by Lyme disease, helped write the PSA, which was created in-house.

Meloni, a GLA celebrity ambassador for the past year, also stars in a two-month-old PSA that in its first six weeks aired 1,000 times across the country and nationally, with 5.7 million total household impressions and donated media value of $184,000. In the PSA, which is offered in :15, :30 and :60 versions, Meloni runs down Lyme disease symptoms, tells viewers that the condition affects half a million Americans annually and there is no cure once it’s chronic, but that GLA has “answers,” “help” and “hope.”

Meloni also recently brought the nonprofit together with Tommie Copper in a week-long fund-raiser. The effort, in which Tommie Copper donated 5% of all sales from a new pain-fighting Full Back Support Zip-Up Shirt, resulted in a $4,350 donation to GLA, Swift says.