Joe Torre Needs Help. So Does His Ad
IT’S ALWAYS A SHAME TO SEE A WORTHY NONPROFIT RUN A fundraising ad that just doesn’t do the job. One can’t help thinking that the ad money could have been better spent on the organization’s programs.
I found this ad for the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation in a recent issue of BusinessWeek. Of course, I have no way of knowing how it got there. For all I know, this expensive page was remnant space and was granted free to the foundation as a donation to its cause.
And indeed the design and copy (what copy?) may have been donated too.
But that still doesn’t forgive using this valuable space for an appeal that falls far short of what should have been accomplished.
About 95% of the ad is taken up with a bleed photograph of a deserted, scary slum street at night. The only light comes from a street lamp and from a lighted window on the third floor.
Down near the sidewalk we see the words
