• by Les Luchter , 4 hours ago

A somber rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s 1984 “Footloose” anthem “Holding Out for a Hero” stirs the heartstrings in the first TV spot for LiveOnNY, the only federally designated organ procurement organization for the New York metro area.

The spot starts with patients in hospital beds singing the first lines of the song, and “you’re not necessarily 100% sure what’s going on. Then the viewer starts to put two and two together,” Ellis Verdi, president of the DeVito/Verdi agency tells Marketing Daily. “That’s where the hit comes in. And you eventually realize, I see what they’re saying.

“That ability to have surprise element that’s emotional and resonates in from a truthful standpoint is the power of this commercial.”

The ad, which debuted during the New York Mets opening game on March 26, is set to run for a few months on early morning shows and evening news on the city’s four network stations; in local cable via CNN, CNBC, Fox News, MS. Now, Headline News, NY1, News 12 Westchester, News 12 Long Island, Telemundo and Univision; plus a CTV/OTT “targeted program.”

DeVito/Verdi president Ellis Verdi tells Marketing Daily that the target demo is “New Yorkers in general. That means all walks of life. This is mainstream New York. This is not an upscale campaign by far.”

An out-of-home campaign, which will begin next week on the Metro-North and LIRR commuter railroads before expanding to the subway lines, consists of 12 different ads, which runs the gamut, Verdi says, from the funny to the serious, but also have “smartness.”

So one declares, “In a city of transplants, you’d think it would be easier to find one,” another “We could have saved them, but we didn't have the heart.” The latter is followed by the words, “Or the lungs. Or the kidneys. Or the liver. In fact, over 5,000 people die each year waiting for an organ transplant…”

All the transit ads and the TV spot end with the words, “Life. Pass it on,” which has been the case since DeVito/Verdi began working for the nonprofit with another out-of-home campaign in fall 2024.

The ads contain no URL nor other call to action. Verdi says that’s “purposeful” because “we’re just trying to get people in the moment to be more positively predisposed to say yes [to organ donation].” He says the campaign wants to make the “tough conversation” about donations “a lot easier.”

Following the launch of its initial campaign in 2024, LiveOnNY achieved the highest two-month transplant volume in its history, with 299 organs transplanted. a 44% increase compared to the same period the year before. During that same timeframe, hospital referrals increased by 34%, said to demonstrate measurable gains in system engagement.

DeVito/Verdi says that 8,000 New Yorkers are currently waiting for their heroes to appear.