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?

Fundraising in Paradise.

South Florida has long been deemed one of the playgrounds of the wealthy.  The southernmost parts of our peninsula, along with parts of California and New York, are where people think fundraising for worthy causes should be a breeze because everyone has money, right? Not necessarily.

Our local newspaper recently shed light on how difficult the fundraising environment has become, due to many economic factors beyond the control of nonprofit agencies. In this climate of uncertainty and change, gaining the attention and trust of supporters is very challenging, putting the onus on agencies to be creative.

At VSBrooks Advertising, being creative is what we do daily. But no one said coming up with unique, eye-catching, funny, thought-provoking, engaging and interactive ways to gain support was easy. Yet, when charged with leading Feeding South Florida onto new paths of revenue-generation and mass communication, Diana Brooks, one of our founders and the board chair of FSF, came up with a few ideas that even impressed The Miami Herald.  

We’re proud of Diana and any idea we can generate that will help keep a person from going hungry. Because if you can’t use your talent to help others, really … what good is it?