Nyack Hospital : Give and Grow

When we heard about the Give and Grow Program through The Journal News we knew we wanted to be involved. Knowing this ad was going to run in September and October and that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month we chose to highlight The Breast Center at Nyack Hospital for one of our submissions.

We did research on breast cancer in women to inspire us, we wanted to have a real impact on the readers and felt the ad should be a public announcement reminding women to get their yearly mammograms. This is where we pulled in the headline, "1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with cancer," a statistic that certainly got my attention. The body copy supports and reinforces the headline message, "By the time you can feel a lump in the breast it is often 0.4 inches, or one centimeter, in size and contains roughly a million cells. It is estimated that a tumor of this size may take one to five years to develop. During that time, the cancer may metastasize, or spread by lymphatics or blood to areas elsewhere in your body."

Once we had the headline and copy down we needed a visual. After some different visual ideas I came up with the perfect image, a simple pink string around a woman’s finger. Using Dana, our Junior Designer’s index finger we took lots of shots and with a little photo retouching we added the image into the layout. We chose to create the ad in black and white to show the bold importance of having a mammogram while keeping the ribbon pink as a focal point and because the pink ribbon is so iconic.



I hope the ad we created reminded women to the importance of making their yearly mammogram appointments.

–Melissa Behrens, Art Director, The Byne Group



SPCA of Westchester : Give and Grow

The Give and Grow program sponsored by The Journal News was really the perfect fit for us. We always try to give back, not only to our clients, but to our community as well. Now we could give back with a 10"x10" pro bono ad for a charity of our choice that would run in The Journal News for free.

We chose SPCA of Westchester as one of the organizations to create an ad for because of their stellar reputation for providing care and permanent placements for animals in need. They are also involved in countless community programs revolving around animals. I’m a huge animal person and these organizations give all of our communities and friends hope.

We met with Lisa Bonanno, Development Associate at SPCA of Westchester, and took a brief tour of the large facilities in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Lisa wanted to focus the ad on "The Lonely Hearts Club" – a new program at SPCA of Westchester that is dedicated to placing animals who are older or have special needs – both socially and physically.

After thorough research of regional shelter and animal service ads, we decided to take a surprisingly brighter and hopeful approach rather than focus on the negative. We decided to make the ad entirely from a dog's point of view.

Zach is the pooch we decided to feature. He's a 2 year old handsome fella who’s part of The Lonely Hearts Club program. So cute, he surely deserves a forever family of his own and think he would have much to say if he could, so we decided to become his voice.

The ad’s headline gives you the big story – Zach is lonely without a family and the supporting copy is his brief story of coming to SPCA of Westchester, how great they’ve been to him, how he would love to move onto his forever family, and that you should come visit him and his friends. The remaining copy tells you more about the organization, it's importance to the community, and highlights contact information for you to take further action. The SPCA of Westchester has a photographer they use on a regular basis who provided the photo. [snootydog.com] We decided to silo the dog out of the photograph and set him on a warm yellow background for high color impact in a newspaper that is mainly black and white.


We believe the ad was successful and are grateful to have been a part of the Give and Grow Program. The SPCA of Westchester loved the ad as well. It is currently on display at the front desk for everyone to see.

–Amanda Holt, Creative Director, The Byne Group

I'm Not Much of a Traveler, I Don't Go on Guilt Trips, or Do I?

I just read a really fascinating article a client forwarded to me from the NY Times today. The article makes the point that it isn't financial incentives or more information that drives consumers, but guilt. The article focuses on the secret to turning consumers green with some amazing examples on how and why a little bit of guilt works. [http://bit.ly/Green-Consumers]

I have always felt the goal of marketing and advertising should be to create an emotional connection with the viewers, and when done right it works. We love to share an experience that make us laugh, feel inspired and proud. But what about guilt, should that ever be part of the equation? I was raised in the middle, middle child, middle boomer, middle grades, sandwiched between the guilt my parents fostered in me and my kids knowing how to manipulate it. Think about how marketers have tuned in to this powerful “guilt” weapon. I read a study that when boxed cake mixes introduced the idea that customers had to add their own egg to the mix the sale of the product spiked. The study explains that people felt less guilty about not baking from scratch!

There are tons of consumer research papers on this subject. According to a 2009 paper, Measuring Existential Guilt Appeals on Donation Intention [http://bit.ly/awOsQ1] "When the audience feels existential guilt they will attempt to minimize the feeling by possibly donating to charity. But that highly intensive guilt appeals evoked anger, irritation and annoyance."

I’m happy to say that I am getting better in managing my own guilt. After all it's just a substitute emotion when you're unwilling to feel what you're really feeling and serves no useful purpose at all. Now please, tell my kids!

What are your thoughts on the subject, please share.


–Ann Byne, Principal, The Byne Group