The Clutcher is a lifesaver

AUCKLAND, Sunday: There’s not many ad exponents who can say their work has, literally, saved lives. One such rarity is Herald on Sunday columnist Paul Catmur, who savours a rare moment in his latest column (scroll down for the Premium link).

Initially, the agency saw the Heart Foundation tvc (still alive and kicking today) as a potential award winner.

“It’s a rather uncomfortable truth about the advertising business is that agencies often see charity work as an opportunity to show how clever they are,” he writes. “This is because they generally do the work at a discount – or even for free.

“Charity ads are very good at winning awards.”

“A couple of years ago, the client wanted to show the symptoms of a heart attack were completely different from what most of us believe. Most of us had come to believe the attacks were rather ‘Hollywood’.

“That little 30-second tvc that we thought had been creatively damaged was demonstrably keeping people alive.”

“New Zealanders were dying who could have been saved if only they’d been aware that the cause of their seemingly trivial symptoms was potentially deadly.

“So our creative team put together an idea – then the client suggested a couple of changes.

“We were aghast. What they were suggesting would ruin our beautiful little ad!

It eventually went to air [with the changes sought by the client] with very little fanfare, but before long patients were turning up with suspected heart attacks quoting symptoms from the ad.

“The little 30-second tvc that we thought had been creatively damaged was demonstrably keeping people alive.

“It’s actually easier to make a charity ad that works than it is to create one that wins awards.”

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