Talk about heading into enemy territory. The American Cancer Society is taking its ad account to Richmond. From Adweek:
The American Cancer Society said it has selected Interpublic Group shop The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., and Omnicom Group’s Brodeur Partners here to handle general-market advertising and public relations, respectively, following a review.
Greg Donaldson, vp, corporate communications for the client, said: “We have had a long and extraordinarily productive working relationship with (Atlanta agency) T.G. Madison. Sadly, times change and so does the nonprofit landscape. After the process, it became clear that we had a tough choice to make. In the end we chose to take our brand in a radically different direction. Both Martin and Brodeur demonstrated innovative thinking and an innate ability to yield keen insights.”
Taking cancer awareness in a “radically different direction”? That ought to be interesting. Maybe Martin can give those Geico cavemen and the Gecko an injection of fatal carcinoma.