DebRA is a charity devoted to finding a cure for a terrible skin afflication called Epidermolysis Bullosa.  More about the condition.

Have a look at this film about sufferer Jonny Kennedy – a real inspiration.

This is a very rare inherited condition that results in blisters, internally and externally, at the slightest knock.  Many sufferer develop skin cancer early.  The pain and restrictions on normal living are tremendous: changing dressing can take many painful hours.

I am giving some of my time to helping promote a dinner that deBRA is having in a month’s time.

The dinner has Michale Portillo speaking.  The event is now half full, but the organisers want to be sure of filling the remaining seats.  (I believe it is £450 per table of 10). The charity has some notable household names in addition to Michael.

The brief

The event should fill, but Tony one of the organisers is extra keen to put this to rest.  If the night is a success it will act as a platform for more – it will give the charity a real impetus.  So he is looking for ideas.

But more than that, the work of DebRA is not well-known.  The brief is flexible if it can get DebRA a higher profile.

All creative ideas welcome – something more than a charity run or jumping out of a plane – let your imagination run wild.

And you don’t have to be a PR to help – I also want to show how online interaction can work

Please leave ideas in the comment box!!!!

Matthew Guy, a graduate designer, is looking for a job.  It is competitive to get a foot into an advertising agency.  What do you do?

You could put your portfolio online.  Check.  You could put a bio up.  Check.

Or you could come up with something really creative.

Matthew has put cardboard cut outs of his site on advertising agency doors where he wants to walk through as an employee.

But I really like his Subservient Graduate website where you can go and command him to do your bidding (it is all pre-recorded).  Showing a sense of humour, originality, persuades you to spend the time to have a look at his work, which looks good.

Very impressive!

Postscript

I have seen a few comments on the Scamp blog that say that these ideas are not new.  Who cares?  Little under the sun is.  I generally still credit anyone who can use ideas and remould them to their aim effectively.

Still have a look at Subservient Chicken from Burger King, which is live.

From there it was picked up in the Manchester Evening News. Now he has been featured in The Guardian, The Metro and The Scotsman as far as I know.

On a more serious note, there is no reason not to apply the same methods to B2C and B2B campaigns. There are certain media channels that almost act like a hub and point of reference for journalists.

A few years ago I did a story about broadband over the electrical network. I placed it in The Register, a leading online magazine read by techies across the globe. The story was picked up in Holland, Russia, USA, South Africa as well as other UK sites. About 10 sites in total used the story. Impressive coverage.

Nothing new there. However, advertising is sometimes seen as the arch rival of PR for budgets.

It is nothing new for me to hear that a company has spent thousands on advertising with no result and they might as well have given it away.

It is easy in a pitch to acquiesce and concede the point and that PR is wonderful and highly cost effective.

The point for me is that if advertising is creative and well targeted it can work well. It can really grab a reader’s attention. There is no need to see advertising as a rival. Indeed, the impact of some of the advertising campaigns I leafed through could teach the PR profession a thing or two.