In response to the many requests we've had to open
aSaigon/CreativeMorning to other agencies and industry sponsors we are doing exactly that. DDB, Lowe and BBDO have all expressed interest but we haven't booked yet, and it's not like just one agency can sponsor.
TBWA remains our beloved benefactor for getting us off the ground
(George gets huge props here). But now we're doing what we set out to do. We more like the idea of brotherhood and togetherness so if two coffee sponsors want to take a go at it and run a taste-off, we're game!
Malongo is ready! But none of you guys get to show your company reels, bad PowerPoints or other silly promo stuff. Restaurants? Come cook against the
Tin Foil Grill! They've got some game you know.
Sponsorship opportunities are now available for location, coffee, breakfast and other ideas to your liking. Sponsorships go from Gold to Bronze but trust me, nobody's going to want Bronze cause you look like 'Cheap Charlie' around here.
TBWA was smart enough to execute the following
press release and we think this sort of press has value to many companies. aSaigon/CreativeMorning remains a non-profit enterprise and all proceeds go towards maintaining the event and printing the cool t-shirts we're making for those in the groove.
Please contact us for sponsorship ideas. We maintain a very select avenue to Saigon's top creative thought leaders and are not interested in numbers at all. Ideas rule and if you're in that business we hope we can work together and get a few better ones.
A few years ago Vietnam finally passed a law requiring motorbike riders to wear a helmet but this law only required them for adult riders. Kids don't need them. Is somebody kidding somebody? We could blame the lawmakers for not seeing the fatalities and injuries amongst children but that shouldn't release parents from their basic responsibilities to protect those children should it? I didn't think so. And so an idea was hatched (yeah, bad pun) to do a public service campaign to speak to parents about the importance of the whole family wearing a helmet. In a country of what might be easily, 30 million motorbikes for roughly 80 million people the motorbike is a way of life in Vietnam. In fact it's an extension of life, an extra limb it has been called. But it's also a way of death, the highest rate of highway fatalities in Asia before enactment of the law.
On launch day, the government deployed 5000 police around the city (Saigon) to enforce strict fines ($10 is strict here) and lo and behold - one day nobody had a helmet and the next day they did. Except for the children. And this baffled the crap out of me. Didn't the people understand that a not fully formed skull can be crushed up to 60% easier than an adult's? Didn't they see it as important? And the answer is, 'no they didn't'. What was important to them was not paying a fine to comply with the law. Sad, I thought. No thought about the reasons one should wear a helmet at all.
Ask anyone what they believe to be a symbol of birth and childhood and you will eventually hear the word 'egg'. So I took that visual and put a helmet on it. It was funny. And it worked. We all know eggs crack easily and putting a helmet on them just reinforced the point. Photographer Mads Monsen and I worked together to create this campaign and we did it without a specific client in mind - because we thought the idea was important. Should you know of any organization in Vietnam who might be interested in running this work as a public service, please contact me. We would love to get this campaign up and running and doing the job the parents should be doing - getting all their kids to wear a helmet.
