THE COMMITTEE TO PROTECT MESOTHELIOMA VICTIMS
A National Earned-Media and Public Affairs Campaign

This campaign centered on generating opposition to the so-called Asbestos Trust Fund Bill, sponsored by then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). Had this campaign not succeeded in killing the bill, the legislation would have established a trust fund much more advantageous to asbestos manufacturers and insurance companies than to hard-working Americans with asbestos-related illnesses, including mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer –– caused exclusively by asbestos exposure –– that usually kills its victims within 18 months of diagnosis. In an effort to spur opposition to the Senate bill, we built a powerful national coalition, The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims (CPMV), composed of meso victims and their family members, former high-ranking members of the military, union leaders, celebrities and other concerned citizens.We identified and recruited Susan Vento, widow of meso victim and U.S. Representative Bruce Vento, to be CPMV’s national spokesperson.We recruited and trained willing CPMV members to engage in a nationwide, victim-oriented, earned-media campaign –– generating hundreds of LTEs, op-eds and radio and TV interviews –– targeting Senators in all 50 states with a particular emphasis on members of key committees (e.g., Judiciary).

In the end, our earned-media campaign produced tens of millions of highly compelling media impressions across the country. The earned-media component coupled with direct contact to targeted Senators via patchthrough phone calls and letters generated such a tremendous groundswell of opposition to the Trust Fund Bill that it died in the 108th Congress.


FORD MOTOR COMPANY
A National Crisis-Management and Media Relations Campaign

The objective of this campaign was two-pronged: (1) to diminish the fallout from the discontinuance of Lincoln Mercury’s flagship vehicle, the Lincoln Continental; and (2) to clearly convey to consumers the ongoing, robust nature of LM’s existing products, such as the Aviator SUV. We crafted an aggressive strategy to ensure consumers that the Lincoln Mercury brand was still alive and well despite the demise of its bestknown vehicle. To this end, we developed a national out-of-the-box “Road Show” that brought LM’s vehicles directly to the people –– setting up test drives and vehicle displays at targeted, high-traffic sites, such as shopping mall parking lots, NASCAR events and traditional car shows. Over the course of a “short fuse” sixmonth window, we produced high-impact results for Lincoln Mercury, executing nearly 40 “Road Show” events, securing more than 20 speaking engagements for both corporate executives and dealership owners and managers –– and generating more than 100 million media impressions via high-end exposure in Road & Track, Car and Driver, automotive sections in some of the nation’s largest circulation daily newspapers as well as auto-oriented TV and talk radio segments.


POTOMAC ELEVATOR COMPANY
A Local Start-Up Market Visibility Campaign