Thank You, ACH and MT

Last week, I called Cael's mother to tell her that a photo of her 4-year-old daughter, Catherine, was in the Times to represent the Akron Children's campaign. That's a fun phone call to make. Then I called Austin's mother and she dropped the phone, calling out "Austin's in the New York Times!" His father had to pick up and finish the conversation. 

For the families that we met during the filming of the Akron Children's commercials, there are some surprise benefits to participating. Each family has thanked us for helping to pass the time while they are in the hospital, giving them a distraction, making their child feel more special, and for giving siblings a little extra attention. Almost every family has told us that we "became part of the family" and helped them through those most difficult days. And that's why this is such a special project for us - they grow to trust us and we make every effort not to break that trust, so we sort of do become part of the family.

Then, when the filming is finished, the fun part is seeing the spots on TV. And articles like this one make a kid like Austin feel great, even if he's still going through treatment. As his father said, "from our little corner of the world, we never thought people would learn about Austin on TV or in the New York Times. This is really special for all of us."

So, congratulations to Marcus Thomas and Akron Children's for the wonderful recent press coverage and thank you for the level of trust that allowed this project to live up to its potential, on all sides: client, agency, production, editor, and subjects. It's wonderful to participate in a project like this. We're thrilled that SHOOT will feature one of the spots in the New Director's Reel that they assemble each year as part of the New Director's Showcase. More to come on that event...