Doctors of the World has launched “More Than a Costume”, a response to this year’s Halloween trend of dressing up in Ebola Hazmat suits. A popular disguise-of-choice for many and a horrifying example of bad taste to others, the Ebola Hazmat suit is both a scary reality and much needed necessity for the thousands of health workers in West Africa risking their own lives to save others. Doctors of the World USA wants to shift the focus off the costume controversy and on to the real need which is to raise funds for health workers and this essential protective gear. If you know someone, see someone or are someone wearing a fake Ebola costume this Halloween, help fund a real one to save lives. The campaign is centered on a microsite MoreThanACostume.com where users can fund anything from a glove, to a whole suit and even a doctor.
“Health workers need new protective gear for each of their rotations. The World Bank estimates that we need 5,000 more health workers to control the outbreak. That could mean over one million suits will be needed in the next six weeks alone. This protective gear can literally mean the difference between life or death for many of these heroes,” said Miranda Sissons, Executive Director of Doctors of the World USA.
The campaign also includes social media outreach with the hashtag #morethanacostume and full- page ads with the headline, “Here it’s a costume. There it saves lives,” to drive people to the site. Ten dollar donations can be made by texting EBOLA to 501501.
Credits
The More Than A Costume campaign was developed at Publicis Kaplan Thaler by chair Linda Kaplan, chief creative officer Rob Feakins, creative director Carlos Figueiredo, associate creative directors/art directors Einav Jacubovich, Josh Horn, Corel Theuma, associate creative directors/copywriters Cuanan Cronwright, Jeroen De Korte, Salina Cole, chief communications officer Tricia Kenney, corporate communication manager Erin Creagh, chief production officer Lisa Bifulco, global managing director Jeremy Bowles, chief digital officer Dawn Winchester, creative director of digital design Sabine Roehl, SVP technology director Alec Cumming, interactive production team Sabrina Abhyankar, Miranda Ossolinski, Wojo Wieronski, Fatima Osman, quality assurance team Earl Willis, Marquita Dennison, analytics team Emily Burns, Tanvir Hannan, strategists Erica Herman, James Quinlan, Sara Knee, Nicole Sands, Nika Rastakhiz, senior project manager Jonathan Manitsky, account team Marc Burkhalter, Mandy Antoniacci, Andrew McCree, Jake Weitzen, Aneika Fermin, Maxwell Gallin, print/art producers Victor Basile, Veronica Williams, photographer Torkil Gudnason via Artist & Agency, with producers Robert Rosenblatt, David Shand, Dominick Governali, Gen Oldfield, George Bixby, James Du, Paul Deangelo, Nick Mazzo, Peter Boemio Henna Kathiya, Douglas Zaner, finance controller Siretta Pearson.
Further work was provided by MediaVest by EVP Publishing and Digital Director Investment and Activation Robin Steinberg, Razorfish by senior media director Kerri Vickers and SVP client engagement Robert Silver, and MSLGROUP by director of marketing and corporate communications Michael Echoer, account team Renee Wilson, Tim Koch, Jenifer Slaw, Stephanie Herzfeld, Jessica Spano.
