Commentary

Out To Launch!

Every week new ad campaigns and websites are launched, and it's hard to keep up with them all. If you missed a few, here are this week's highlights - Ronald McDonald, some BrassBulls, and something steel.

American Airlines unveiled its latest commercial, showing the company's transition to the exclusive “More Room Throughout Coach” seating. “875 planes,” the commercial begins. “9,689 seats removed.” In just 30 seconds, the commercial takes the viewer from planning to completion of the most innovative initiative the industry has seen to provide passenger comfort to air travelers. The commercial began airing on April 24 in seven markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston. Spots on national cable will air on CNN, CNBC, A&E and The History Channel.

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) launched its first-ever email campaign, producing record-breaking online contributions in one day alone. The pro bono campaign, created by the Chicago office of Tribal DDB Worldwide, Blue Sky Factory and ROI Networks, was developed with dynamic images and sound to help effectively communicate the powerful emotion behind the work RMHC does for children worldwide. Sent to 5,000 individuals, 34.5% of recipients opened the email and 10% of those who opened the message were inspired to either "click-through" or forward it to a friend.

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Hallmark Cards is launching a $30 million branding effort that unveils a new tagline for and music from its agency's Chairman-Chief Creative Officer Cheryl Berman. The new tagline "They'll never forget you remembered" debuts during a five-spot package from Bcom3 Group's Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. The first ad, titled "Anthem Mother's Day," flashes black-and-white photographs of mothers and daughters. The spot is set to an original score composed by Berman and sung by folk-rock artist Shawn Colvin.

This weekend, Gap Inc. will debut three television commercials filmed by renowned film directors as part of a bid to revive sagging sales of denim, khakis and white shirts. The new 30-second spots -- shot by Academy Award winners Cameron Crowe and the Coen brothers and emerging director Roman Coppola in black and white -- were created under Lisa Prisco, the creative director behind "Khakis Swing." The company's spring campaign consisted of portraits of middle-aged and relatively obscure celebrities. In March, Gap, which also operates the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains, replaced Modernista!, its ad agency since the holiday season of 2000, with an agency headed by a former Donna Karan executive.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced a new HHS-ABC Radio Networks campaign to reduce health disparities affecting African-Americans by encouraging individuals to go to a doctor for a health screening as part of "Take a Loved One To the Doctor Day" on Sept. 24, 2002. The campaign is part of "Closing the Health Gap," an ongoing partnership that combines HHS' medical expertise with the broadcast resources of ABC Radio Networks to provide important health information to the African-American population.

Raptor Investments, Inc.’s wholly owned subsidiary LBI E Web Communities, Inc., has launched its first website. EWEB has designed BrassBulls.com to be a financial oriented website with a focus on advertising publicly traded companies. EWEB will make the BrassBulls.com site available to publicly traded companies as a way to showcase their business plans, goals, developments and corporate story. The site currently offers message boards, a featured company section, quotes, research and access to general financial market data from third party sources. In addition, companies will be able display their information via a multimedia presentation.

ESPN Radio will unveil a newly designed, state-of-the-art website on April 29 in conjunction with its 10th anniversary. The new site will offer ESPN Radio’s 17 million listeners an improved, user-friendly community forum that brings users closer to the non-stop action taking place in sports news. Listeners will now be able to participate in exclusive ESPNRadio.com sports contests and promotions, buy exclusive merchandise in the newly designed ESPN Radio online store, join the new Loyal Listener Club to receive enhanced privileges and receive richer, deeper, behind-the-scenes access to ESPN Radio personalities.

Incidentally, ESPN.com, ESPNsoccernet.com and ESPNdeportes.com, the Spanish-language site produced by ESPN.com, unveiled sites dedicated to the most comprehensive coverage and analysis of the 2002 FIFA World Cup available online, complete with live scoring, up-to-the-minute news and information, in-depth match previews and reviews, live chats, photo galleries, video features and more.

High Steel Structures, Inc., a manufacturer of steel girder bridges, has launched a new website. The site features custom functions including a shipping calculator and project pricing guide for bridge engineers, designers and state Departments of Transportation.

This newsletter is compiled weekly by MediaPost staff writer Adam Bernard. Past issues are archived at the MediaPost website. Your comments, questions and submissions are always welcome and appreciated.

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