The American Lung Association has released an edgy public service advertising (PSA) campaign featuring provocative television, online and out-of-home components to encourage people to download the charity’s new State of the Air smartphone application, a valuable resource for people living with lung disease like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), people with heart disease or diabetes, as well as older adults and children. This is the first time that a charity has included an app download as the call to action in a national PSA, which traditionally focus on promoting the brand or a particular health message.
What’s fun for Naperville is that the national series has a connection here. Naperville native Max Ganet plays “Alvin Grimes – The Air Collector.” Remember Max on stage when he went to Naperville North High School?
“He’s a really cool kid and his work is hilarious!” said Amy Ochalski, Healthy Air Manager at American Lung Association in Greater Chicago.
The television/online PSAs feature a fictional “air collector” named Alvin Grimes, who is incredibly passionate about his love of air. He loves air so much he takes samples in glass jars from everywhere he visits and even from his own backyard. Alvin’s character is meant to be quirky and endearing as evidenced by his passion for the air and all things air-related, e.g. dirigibles, sailboats, balloons, pinwheels, etc.
“Our new PSAs are meant to be comical to capture the viewer’s attention and convey the underlying message that it is important to be aware of your air,” said Carrie Martin Munk, Vice President of Communications and Marketing for the American Lung Association. “We hope Alvin gets people to laugh, stop and think about what they’re breathing, and then download the app so they can monitor local air quality on a daily basis.”
Alvin has his own Facebook and Twitter accounts where he will post and tweet about air. The television PSAs include :10, :15, :30 and :60 second formats. There are four additional online videos that will be available on Alvin’s YouTube page that are varied in length. Find Alvin online at facebook.com/theaircollector, twitter.com/theaircollector and youtube.com/theaircollector.
