The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) is shining a light on the AIDS problem…literally. Young adults at U.S. and Canadian universities were invited to create light drawings, in which exposures are made in the dark by moving a hand-held light source in front of a camera, to shine their own light on the crisis. Their handiwork was then showcased on a new website, iembraceaids.com.
‘It’s really less about fundraising, more about awareness raising and mobilizing,’ explains Kristen deRoo VanderBerg, communications and marketing coordinator with the CRWRC.
Iembraceaids.com is a forum for enlightenment and discussion created by Toronto-based shops Manifest Communications and Jam3media. It also allows visitors to send light drawing postcards to friends (created on the website) and submit light animation videos. If visitors become members, a light appears on a map on the website representing their location.
Launched on World AIDS Day in December, iEmbraceAIDS.com acts as a sub-campaign of sorts in the CRWRC’s global ‘Embrace AIDS’ effort, which targets young adults between 18 and 30 years old. ‘That’s the demographic that can get passionate about an issue and get really involved in it,’ says deRoo VanderBerg.
In advance of World AIDS day, promotional materials including a how-to document for holding light drawing events, a poster, a web button, a World AIDS Day PA announcement script and glow-in-the-dark bracelets were distributed to various churches, Christian high schools and universities. All the materials drove to the website. The campaign is set to run until 2010.
The creds:
advertiser: Kristen deRoo VanderBerg, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
agencies: Manifest Communications, Smak, Jam3media
website: Deborah Caprara (AD), Manifest Communications; Mark McQuillan(technical lead) and Pablo Vio (lead designer), Jam3media
CD: Claire Lamont, Smak
ADs: Wes Wolch, Smak; Kerri Macaulay, Manifest Communications
account services: Greg Hegger, Smak; Lindsay Page, Manifest Communications
