Hiding in plain sight

You’re never more aware of an ad or a message until you’re paying attention. Believe me, as an advertising firm, we get it.

Car ads don’t ring a bell until your ride starts making funny sounds. Billboards for a vacation don’t catch your eye until you’re completely frazzled, and that new restaurant doesn’t intrigue you until you’ve got a hot date. My point being, the ads were always there; you just weren’t paying attention.

Hunger is like that. It is all around you. Really, it is. It is literally hiding in plain sight. That woman standing next to you in the store, her child is hungry. The guy serving you at your favorite bar, his elderly mother is starving. The people you pass every day have problems, issues and challenges, we know. But did you know that one of their most pressing problems is feeding themselves and their families?

Attempting to get people to pay attention to a challenge that does not affect them directly can be like running an ad for a product no one needs at that moment. Folks just don’t seem to care, so we are doing everything we can to capture their focus. The Miami Herald sees the hunger as we do – glaring, ugly and difficult – so they ran an opinion piece I authored on the subject. As the chair of Feeding South Florida, I hope you take a moment to read it, then another moment to do something about it. Feeding South Florida can help you help others easily.

Hunger is doing a lousy job of fading away, so let’s take a hard, long look at it, shall we?