A New Strategy for Public Service Announcements

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig disease, effects 0.005% of the population worldwide.  ALS is not cureable and there has been very little progress in finding effective treatments.  A recent campaign in the Netherlands was launched to bring more awareness to this disease and the lack of funding available to find a cure.  The ALS Netherlands Foundation operates with no advertising budget and yet was able to increase donations 500%, raise awareness of ALS from 62% to 81%, and increase willingness to give from 27% to 40%.  

The ALS of Netherlands Foundation did this through the "I Have Already Died" campaign.  In their own words:

Given the facts that ALS is an unknown disease and the ALS Foundation Netherlands has no advertising budget at all, a confrontational strategy was chosen. Participating patients made campaign statements, which are aired after they have died. The ultimate proof that ALS is a merciless disease.

While traditional media picked up the story, the campaign used digital media,Twitter, and their website to to advance their cause.  The story has gone viral in the Netherlands and you can see a short piece on it here.

I wrestled with whether or not to write on this as it is not strictly a digital marketing effort, however if not for social media I (and maybe you too) would be unaware of the ALS Netherlands existence.  Just as skate boarding dogs and kids biting fingers can gain a rapid following, public service ads can, through digital media, raise awareness in a way they were not able to previously.