Promo - July 2008 - (Page 16)

Richard Te desco EXPERIENTIAL A Helping Hand Exhibit follows path of an African AIDS victim For most Americans, the spread of AIDS in Africa is a crisis that might as well be happening on another planet. World Vision, a non-profit Christian organization that supports children in crisis, wanted to bring the reality of the problem home to people in the U.S. So it chose to re-create the experience of a child orphaned by the disease by replicating the environment in which such a child lives. Its ambitious initiative spawned two 3,000-square-foot traveling exhibits that present a very realistic setting of an African village and its environs, incorporating artifacts imported from that continent. Everything is genuine, right down to the cups used by young AIDS victims and the rags they clothed themselves with. People walking through the exhibit, erected at Christian places through the room in a gas station where a child slept while his mother worked there as a prostitute, through a banana field where destitute children slept, the restaurant where they worked and, finally, the clinic where they learned that they were infected with the AIDS virus. “We bring it to life with photographs and vignettes,” Yoder says. Natural sound effects also help convey a sense of the African environment. When visitors reach the clinic, their hands are stamped with the result of the child’s positive AIDS test. “You literally receive the results onto your hand. People are moved by it,” he says. There is a chapel where visitors can pen notes and post them on the wall. Finally, they are asked to make a commitment to support an orphaned child, pledging $35 a month to provide food, security, health care and education. Those who make the commitment can develop a mail-based relationship with the child they’re supporting. “We connect people in the West in very tangible ways,” Yoder says. “It really is a oneto-one relationship.” In addition to soliciting contributions to support children orphaned by the modern plague, World Vision is also raising money by selling merchandise, including sweatshirts and photos from Africa. Halfway through what was planned as an 18-month tour around the country, the exhibit has realized very tangible results: more than $6 million has been raised in commitments from 95,000 people in 40 venues, resulting in 10,100 children sponsored. The impact of the experience is enhanced by the time visitors spend in the exhibit, which has four routes mirroring the real-life experiences of four children. People listen to the recorded narrative and proceed at their own pace. “We’ve intentionally slowed it down, so it’s a very personal experience that you’re going through on your own,” says Cal Zarin, the director of marketing for The Brand Experience. World Vision is on the road with its Step into Africa AIDS tour, which replicates the environment a child orphaned by AIDS lives in. At right, visitors post messages in a chapel at the end of the walk-through experience. of worship around the country, are equipped with headphones to orient them. Visitors are literally following in the footsteps of children whose lives have been irrevocably changed through losing parents to the disease. “The exhibit is not just a display to look at. You’re literally walking into scenes that re-create their lives,” says Michael Yoder, World Vision director of experiential engagement. The experience begins with a briefing from a World Vision representative who explains to the visitors what it is they are about to confront. Visitors proceed through an African village, walking 16 July 2008 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - July 2008

Promo - July 2008 Contents Editor's Note Shelf Help Beautiful Bovines Rest Stop Who Let the Dogs Blog? A Helping Hand Commentary Solid Gold Q and A: Mighty Mattel Flying the Coup Putting E-mail in Motion Resource Center The Agency Center The Young Prefer Mail Index of Advertisers

Promo - July 2008

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