The AD Club honors U.S. Fund for UNICEF with the Stars of Madison Avenue award

Event announces global expansion plans for award-winning Tap Project initiative, unveils new call-to-action campaign and showcases Pampers' "One Pack = One Vaccine" program

The Advertising Club honors the U.S. Fund for UNICEF at the Stars of Madison Avenue Luncheon at Nokia Theatre.

NEW YORK (October 1, 2008) — Kicking off Advertising Week 2008 with the ever-spectacular Stars of Madison event, the ADVERTISING Club honored the U.S. Fund for UNICEF this year for its innovative marketing programs, including the Tap Project and Pampers' "One Pack=One Vaccine" cause marketing programs. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF educates, advocates and fundraises on behalf of UNICEF, the world's leading children's organization that has saved more young lives than any other organization in the world.

The Tap Project—one of the U.S. Fund's largest and most successful campaigns—commenced in 2007 on World Water Day to raise awareness and to help raise funds to provide clean and accessible drinking water to children around the world. In 2008, the campaign went nationwide with the support of its first corporate sponsor, American Express.

Pampers' "One Pack = One Vaccine" campaign is the largest cause marketing campaign ever conducted to benefit UNICEF in North America. The program in North America has generated funding to provide over 45 million vaccines to protect women and their newborns in the developing world against tetanus to date, and has also raised significant awareness of this "silent killer" that takes the lives of thousands of women and children each year through a major national advertising campaign and extensive PR outreach.

Images of UNICEF at work saving children's lives were on display.

"The U.S. Fund for UNICEF was our unanimous choice for the Stars of Madison Avenue award that honors innovative marketing and advertising campaigns from both creative and philanthropic standpoints," says Ian Parmiter, president, The ADVERTISING Club. "As an organization, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF has evolved into a sophisticated marketer that effectively reaches out to consumer, business and political communities in support of the world's children. Its recent cause promotion with Pampers and its grassroots fundraiser, the Tap Project created by David Droga, are far-reaching, have well-supported marketing plans and tremendous impact around the world. We are very pleased to honor everyone involved in these efforts today."

Sponsors of The ADVERTISING Club luncheon included Microsoft Advertising, Manatt Phillips Phelps LLP and media sponsor, Advertising Age magazine.

Moderating the program was Thom Gruhler, Senior Vice President, The ADVERTISING Club and EVP – McCann Erickson, with David Granger, Editor In Chief, Esquire magazine facilitating. Granger and Esquire provided the springboard for helping launch The Tap Project.

The panelists at the event included:

Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO, U.S. Fund for UNICEF
David Droga, Founder and Creative Chairman, Droga5
Scot Safon, Chief Marketing Officer, CNN Worldwide
Melissa Vasilev, Assistant Brand Manager, Pampers NA Initiatives, Procter & Gamble
Curtis Wilson, VP and General Manager, Restaurant Industries, American Express
Marcus Samuelsson, UNICEF Ambassador and Chef/Co-Owner Townhouse Restaurant Group

A wake-up call to the American public

Richard Alleyne, Krista Schmidt and Jay Aldous (left to right) were among some of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF staff who attended the event.

At the luncheon, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF announced the launch of its new call-to-action debuting this fall called "Believe in Zero." Every day, 25,000 children die of preventable causes. UNICEF believes that number should be zero. That's zero children killed by malaria and measles, poisoned by unclean water, lost for a lack of safe shelter, or by falling prey to malnutrition.

The campaign will feature a mix of print and online advertising, grassroots activities and TV public service announcements featuring the support of celebrity ambassadors including Lucy Liu, Joel Madden, Marcus Samuelsson, Al Roker, Nicole Ritchie and many more. The goal is to mobilize the American public to help UNICEF put an end to this unacceptable and unnecessary situation, until it gets to "zero."

"The tragic reality of unnecessary child deaths is a crisis of immense proportion and time is not on our side—every day we wait or fail to act, 25,000 children die," said U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and CEO Caryl Stern. "The ADVERTISING Club's recognition of the U.S. Fund is accepted on behalf of the world's children and must be shared by all our donors, partners and friends who are uniting to do whatever it takes to save a child."

A brand called water

The initial concept for the Tap Project was born from the mind of David Droga, creative chairman at the New York City-based Droga5. When asked by the editorial staff at Esquire magazine to demonstrate a creative campaign idea for its annual "Genius" issue, the agency came up with the unique call-to-action campaign that invited individuals to donate $1, or more, for the tap water they normally get for free at participating restaurants. Now in its third year, Tap has begun another unprecedented collaboration—this time with a network of international ad agencies—and will launch globally in 2009.

"Tap is an idea far bigger than our agency. It is the purest of ideas with the grandest of potential, and potential without an expiration date," said David Droga. "I am extremely flattered that so many brilliant agencies, nationally and now internationally, have volunteered to own this for their cities."

About The ADVERTISING Club
The ADVERTISING Club (www.theadvertisingclub.org) is the premier organization for all communications professionals in New York. The Club, founded in 1896, offers its members a forum to exchange ideas, make connections and honor excellence. The Club's Foundation provides students numerous educational outreach programs that give back to build a stronger and more diverse advertising and marketing community. The Club is the facilitating sponsor of The International ANDY Awards, which acknowledge outstanding creative achievement around the world in the field of advertising.