Alzheimer’s Campaign Peaks Public and Media Interest

The PSA for the Alzheimer's Association, a Chicago-based volunteer organization that funds research and awareness of the disease, features classic Hollywood starlet Rita
Hayworth dancing nimbly across the screen. It drives home the fact that Alzheimer's affects even the world's prettiest and most famous faces; the disease took Hayworth's life.
Part of the effectiveness of the message, says Danny Chun, the association's director of media relations, is that Alzheimer's can affect anyone.

That was also the message of the World Alzheimer's Congress, held last July 9-18 in Washington, DC, attended by 5,000 researchers, healthcare professionals and families
affected by the disease. The meeting was the world's largest to focus on Alzheimer's, a degenerative brain disease that afflicts four million Americans and is projected to afflict
22 million worldwide by 2025. Using the conference as a springboard, AA launched an educational campaign about diagnosis and treatment, funded by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer
and Eisai. Hill and Knowlton's Chicago office and TBWA Health, a full service marketing agency, were hired to drive PR strategy and work the media phones.

The focus of the campaign, says Chun, was to promote early detection of the disease that can be slowed with new drugs and lifestyle adjustments. Historically, Alzheimer's had
been ignored, or worse yet, stigmatized, resulting in afflicted families too upset or ashamed to share their experiences with others. The Rita Hayworth PSA, narrated by Hayworth's
daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, was created to give hope to those confronted with a disease that many perceived as hopeless.

World Congress Attracts Worldwide Attention

Princess Yasmin, honorary chair for the AA, unveiled the Hayworth PSA at AA's World Congress. Prior to the actual event, Chun sent out 400 VHS copies of the announcement to
cable and broadcast outlets around the country and sent video, audio and print formats to the AA's 150 regional chapters, along with advice on pitching local media effectively.
Through a syndicated press service, Chun sent out a news release about the Hayworth campaign to 10,000 local newspapers nationwide. At the Congress, Chun produced both a VNR and
ANR featuring Princess Yasmin at the unveiling and put those up on satellite media services.

The World Congress got more press than Chun could have dreamed: some 800 million media impressions emerged over ten days ("more than we pick up in a year," says Chun.) Time ran
a cover story on Alzheimer's during the Congress and quoted several attendees. A slow news week, a recessed U.S. Congress, and some 3,000 timely media kits mailed in advance of
the Congress prompted several hundred reporters to show up at the Congress's proceedings. Several international news organizations, as far away as Korea and Japan, reported the
story from their Washington bureaus. The greatest endorsement of all came from President Clinton, never one to miss a bandwagon. When Middle East peace talks at Camp David stalled
during the Congress's final weekend, Clinton announced $50 million in new funding for the National Institutes of Health's Alzheimer research, and specifically praised the Congress
for its efforts.

After the Media Frenzy

The Hayworth PSA has aired 12,000 times on 257 stations, and continues to run several times a week during CNN Headline News and on the CNN Airport Network. In the months
following the Congress, 70,000 people contacted the AA for more information, distributed through the organization's local chapters. Representatives from several countries,
including Canada and Spain, have since contacted Chun about running the Hayworth spot.

The AA's campaign received two Recognizing Excellence Awards in New York last April for its effectiveness in raising awareness about a previously disregarded disease. The
Recognizing Excellence Awards are bestowed by the pharmaceutical marketing industry, co-sponsored by CBS-TV and Edgewood Consulting.

Alzheimer's disease remains newsworthy today, with Time, The New York Times, and NBC Nightly News recently giving the disease significant attention. Although he doesn't say his
work directly contributed to the flurry of coverage, Chun acknowledges it played a vital role in changing public perception. "What happened during the conference reflected an
unprecedented attention and awareness on this issue," says Chun. "And our [media coverage] continues to be strong," he adds.

(Contacts: Danny Chun, Alzheimer's Association, 312/335-5764; Michelle Rabil, H&K, 212/885-0419; Johanna Garcia, H&K, 212/885-0623)

Prime Time Promo

During the course of the Rita Hayworth PSA campaign, the H&K team scored a PR coup that most publicists only dream about, on one of TV's hottest shows. When the team
discovered that Alan Alda was going to play a character in the early stages of Alzheimer's on NBC's prime time "ER," they suggested to one of the show's producers that they write
Aricept into the script, a new drug from Pfizer and Eisai that slows the disease. The producers, striving to stay current on medical advances, used it. The initial airing reached
25 million viewers, with subsequent airings in syndication.

Campaign Stats

Time Frame: February-August, 2000
Budget: $2 million
Alzheimer's Association Key Players: Danny Chun
Agency Key Players: at Hill and Knowlton, Michelle Rabil, Johanna Garcia; at TBWA Health, Jeremy Miller
Campaign Battle Cry: Today there's hope for Alzheimer's patients.