A shocking real-life video aimed at youth showing a teenager's fatal car accident will undoubtedly save lives, says the maker of a a new campaign for the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec. Like an organ donation, this gesture will certainly allow lives to be saved, says Richard Leclerc, of agency Commando Création in Montréal, thanking the boy's parent for allowing the video to be used in advertising campaign. The front piece of the multi-media campaign, dubbed De Héros à Zéro (From hero to zero) is a music video performed by the group Projet Orange showing actual footage of a drag-racing crash last April that claimed the life of 19-year-old Mathieu Perron. Shot by two of Perron's friends, the video includes the sounds of the boy's anguished friends and images of the car's ruins. A 30-second version of the video is running as an ad on MusiquePlus and Projet Orange will sing the song in concerts across the province. Perron's parents gave the automobile insurance board, the Quebec agency responsible for road safety, exclusive rights to show their son's last moments for educational purposes. The latest campaign is just part of a three-year road safety campaign by the board aimed at youth aged 16 to 24. The $200,000 campaign runs until Nov. 11. The video is available online at www.projetorange.com.
More details (in french)
De retour en 2001
Un peu d'histoire
La création de la chanson
Advertis-Aid, the association of advertising creators working for humanitarian causes
A worldwide contest for advertising messages focused on great humanitarian causes and social marketing, under the project name Publici-Terre (Advertis-Aid), will get under way thanks to a $10,000 grant to Richard Leclerc, president of Commando Création, who will organize and manage it.
The grant is one of four given in the PCM's first set of bursaries. The four projects were deemed compatible with the objectives of the new PCM Bursary Programme, which is to foster the advancement and development of advertising and the profession of communicator.
The four grants totalled $30,000 from the PCM Bursary Fund which is supported through profits from the PCM's annual golf tournament and the Zoom Media Agency Network.
The Programme is in keeping with the mission of the PCM which prides itself on being the forum of communications professionals in Quebec, says Claude Foisy, president of the PCM for the 1999-2000 term and general manager communications Quebec for Bell Mobility.
"We seek out ideas that are likely to enrich and enhance our professional pool of knowledge,"says Foisy.
The club intends to follow up each project to ensure that applicants meet the objects tabled, says Michel Corriveau, president of Multidées Communications and a PCM Board member who initiated the program.
Leclerc came up with the idea of the contest after he met with European and African creatives, and urged them to join together to develop campaigns on a volunteer basis for humanitarian or non-governmental organizations in developing countries. Such campaigns would subsequently be entered in the 'Humani-terre award' contest which would also become an international reference hub designed to foster exchange on various concepts.
Other grants went to Emmanuelle Garnaud and Productions Info Presse ($10,000) to transfer, archive and restore old Quebec advertisements on film or 3/4" cassettes so as to publish a series of old advertising shorts for viewing by the general public and the communications industry; Sylvain Desrochers, director of the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Continuing Education's Advertising Certificate ($6,000) to write a book on the profession of 'advertising specialist' and the practice of advertising-related activities; and Jacques Blouin, retired founding president of Blouin Coulombe Dubé Thompson ($4,000) to complete a book on the history of the Quebec advertising sector over the past 30 years, examining advertising both as a mirror of modern society and as a lever of market expansion.
Gail Chiasson,
www.pubzone.com
Oct. 29/99
SAAQ Launches Song Contest
The Sociéte de l'assurance automobile du Québec has launched a contest where young people of age 16-plus write the words for a song on the problems caused by speeding or by drinking while driving.
Developed by Richard Leclerc of Commando Création, the contest can be entered directly on the Internet by clicking on www.commando-creation.com.
Deadline is midnight, Nov. 19/99.
Gail Chiasson,
www.pubzone.com
Oct. 27/99
Commando 97-98.
Safety ad shows real-life crash