|
|
for the American dream
Tim McHale on DDB's weekend WTC fundraiser
By Jeff Bercovici
This Sunday at 10 a.m., DDB New York and Tribal DDB will host the DDB American Dream Walk-A-Thon to raise money for economic victims of the World Trade Center attacks. Participants will go for a 2.4 mile walk through Battery Park and will be treated to a number of musical performances and foods served by vendors who worked in or near the twin towers. Corporate sponsors who have signed on so far include AOL Time Warner, Yahoo! and Bayer, and individuals can sponsor walkers as well. All proceeds will go to ACCION New York’s American Dream Fund to help small business owners whose businesses were hurt or destroyed by the attacks. Tim McHale is chief media officer of Tribal DDB and one of the event’s organizers, as well as an advisor and too-occasional contributor to Media Life.
Where did the idea for this event come from?
The genesis is that after Sept. 11 we got everyone in the New York office, which is about 500 people, all together to talk about what we have experienced as a community, as a city, as Americans and as DDBers.
Clearly the media had been focusing on all the people, the police, the firefighters, the EMTs and of course all the families that were devastated.
But we were asking ourselves, how about some of the other people that were probably not on the news and whom no one is really focusing on, and that’s the small businesses in the area.
And of course a lot of people who work at DDB live or hang out downtown, and we can see with our own eyes that a lot of people who were nowhere near the World Trade Center were affected.
So we decided that it was important enough that after a proper amount of grief and grieving and certainly focusing on some of the more immediate issues that we were all very supportive of—you know Omnicom donated $3 million to the Red Cross and a variety of other funds—we really wanted to do something that reinforces why we’re proud to be Americans.
The fact is that we in the advertising business are benefactors and protectors of the American dream.
Why do people get up in the morning and work as hard as they do in the internet and in communications, and really in any field?
It’s not just because of the money.
It’s because of what we believe in terms of the American dream, and we think that’s worth standing up for and promoting and raising money for.
This is for people who have been putting their lives on the line by starting new businesses.
So in a long-winded kind of way, that’s really where it came from.
It’s taken on a life of its own, and we are very, very excited and wouldn’t be surprised if that has a multitude of positive effects through the media and through other ways that people need to be aware of so that people who really don’t have a safety net and who really should get help, because they really are worth investing in, can.
We like the idea of giving small businesses low-interest loans so that they can take that money, hopefully use it to build their small businesses back up, then repay it.
Since it’s not for profit, that money would continue to stay in the community and be reinvested in other small businesses.
Who will be there on Sunday—mostly media and marketing types, or others as well?
We’ve been promoting it within the marketing community, but we are asking all our clients, and actually all of DDB Worldwide is participating in one shape or another, people from all over the country.
I’m being sponsored by people in offices as far away as Seattle who really have been touched by the desire to do something positive in light of this terrible tragedy.
This particular effort will be designed to help people who have been impacted—either their business has been hurt or shut down by the blast.
In fact, there’ll be a bunch of vendors there who have lost their small businesses serving food and who will be speaking as well.
So it’s not just media and marketing people. I believe—and this is not my domain—but I believe Paula Zahn, I think, is going to be there.
This is going to get a lot of media coverage and, quite honestly, I think it’s going to be promoted not just among the media and marketing community. I believe DDB is going to be sending it out to the news properties in the New York area and will be inviting other people to participate.
We’ll have at least 300 people. We’re going to have a lot of different fun events.
At the same time, we’re within eyesight of Ground Zero, so no one is thinking this is going to be just a picnic, but really a positive demonstration to call attention to what we think most if not all Americans believe in and are proud of.
And if we can raise some money and help some people, all the better.
Did you consider holding it at another location, or do you think it’s important that it be near the former World Trade Center?
We felt it was just perfect to have it here.
This was our first choice. Our fallback was Central Park if we couldn’t get the permits, because you need a permit to do anything, obviously, on public property.
But the city has been incredibly cooperative and has sped through approvals quicker probably than it ordinarily would have.
For me, I have personally resisted going down to Ground Zero because I just didn’t want to go down and look at it.
I could pretty much imagine what it was like and I could read about it every day and see it on the television. For me, it was important to go down there with a positive purpose in mind and to try to stand up for what they were trying to knock down.
I think a lot of people haven’t gone down. What I’ve been told is that a lot of tourists and visitors have gone down.
But this is an opportunity for New Yorkers to go down who have been reluctant to go there since this all happened.
November 28, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
Printer-Friendly
Version | Send
to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact
Us
