April 19, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Charities that support scientific or medical research should always be looking for eye-catching ways to remind donors that their gifts keep the laboratory work in motion, says Jeff Brooks, creative director at Merkle/Domain, an advertising agency serving nonprofit organizations, on Donor Power Blog
Maybe such groups could take a tip from the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia, which placed a researcher inside a vending machine.
Well, sort of.
Mr. Brooks gives kudos to this “ambient stunt” where a man in white lab coat holding test tubes sits within a glass booth labeled “MS Laboratory.” This simulated scientist is motionless until someone deposits money in slot in front of the booth, whereupon he gets to work, tinkering with the test tubes and what not. After a while he falls motionless again, awaiting further donations.
“Okay, it’s pretty corny” Mr. Brooks writes of the stunt, photographs of which are included on his site. “But it’s literal and direct.”
“It dramatically demonstrates something many nonprofits are afraid to admit: Without our donors, we’re sunk; when you give, the work goes on,” he adds.
