Ch5 The Big Idea

I chose the Chalkbot & Chalkbot films campaign for Nike that was listed at the end of the chapter. The big idea for this campaign was to illuminate a Tour de France tradition of chalking the roads. Nike took this tradition and chalked the roads with messages of hope for the fight against cancer. The Livestrong and Lance Armstrong organizations were also a part of this campaign, encouraging people to participate by chalking their own yellow messages on the roads. People could also send messages directly to the Chalkbot from social media and texting outlets to be a part of this community. I really liked the connection between a tradition and creating a community around that tradition. It's easy to relate, participate, and enjoy being part of this campaign - and that's a big idea in itself: to be part of something greater than yourself.


Likewise, I chose the Dove Real Beauty campaign done a few years ago. To promote and launch the campaign, Dove threw events at various locations in the U.S. and Canada. At both these events, they set out a large scale and asked people around the stations to step on the scale. Most were afraid to do so thinking their weight would be displayed to the crowd; instead, a phrase or word of encouragement was displayed. Words such as "beautiful" or "confident" took place of the numbers that would have appeared on a regular scale. Since then, many women have taken part in this campaign by visiting the website, displaying their own stories and words of encouragement, donating to the Dove self-esteem fund, and buying Dove products.