The 2006 National Appeal Campaign
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Lazy Bruce the Bull |
Jake the Muss may be long gone, but Temuera Morrison’s latest fighting role also involves a character that spends too much time out with the boys – Lazy Bruce the Bull – a character in the Child Cancer Foundation’s “Fight the Monster” Appeal Week campaign. The animated campaign also stars the voices of Kerre Woodham and Mikey Havoc.
The three well known personalities gave up their time to voice the characters of Bruce the Bull, Maggie the Morepork and Rex the Rabbit who meet the star of this year’s campaign Connor Hourigan.
Connor, a plucky four-year-old from Carterton is a brave little “monster fighter” who has overcome a Wilms tumour on her kidney.
In the advertising campaign, her animated alter-ego asks these characters to join her in her fight against childhood cancer. While she doesn’t have much success, the Foundation hopes that the moving campaign will inspire New Zealanders to donate during this year’s Appeal Week (27 March – 2 April).
“There are not many people who wouldn’t agree that child cancer is a monster – a scary, unpredictable disease that no family wants to encounter,” says Child Cancer Foundation CEO Jim Barclay.
“People are very responsive to story telling and we believe that that the monster analogy is a great way of communicating the enormously difficult time families living with childhood cancer face.
This year the Foundation aims to raise in excess of $1 million to fund its care and support of all New Zealand families living with childhood cancer.
The Child Cancer Foundation worked in conjunction with advertising agency DDB and animators Yuk Foo to create the “Fight the Monster” concept in support of 2006’s fundraising activity.
Temuera Morrison says that his decision to get in support of the “Fight the Monster” campaign was easy.
“There are thousands of excuses that people have when they choose not to donate to charity – my character of Bruce uses just one of them. But when you think about the battle these kids and their families have with cancer, what they go through in treatment and the strength they show – there really isn’t a good excuse. As a parent – I had to join the fight.”
The advertising campaign is also supported by a web site, designed by Tribal DDB, which enables people to help Connor fight the monster by making online donations. Each donation received changes the landscape of Connor’s journey by making it sunnier and growing a flower in honour of your donation. You can also download an interactive screen saver where Connor delivers messages updating you on how the fight is going.
The campaign was launched at a special function where Temuera Morrison and Hurricane’s players were the first to join the fight by donating online.
“The best way to fight a monster is by creating an army of people – the Child Cancer Foundation believes no children or their families living with cancer should be alone. Through this very attractive and interactive site we hope to create an online community of supporters,” says Mr Barclay.
The public can expect to see the “Fight the Monster” ad appear on TV1, TV3 and the Sky Television network, online and in selected women’s magazines.
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