AIM goes national with ad campaign
Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 12, 2003
The Abstinence In Motion (AIM) Project now has all of the glitz and glitter of a Las Vegas nighttime.
The project's advertising campaign was showcased
at the National Abstinence Clearing House Conference in Las Vegas and is set to go national this week.
The television advertisements are being shown on WTVY-Dothan and feature local high school and Troy State University students. The same ad campaigns will be shown on national television beginning this week and a Back-to-Front magazine for parents and teens will also carry the message o abstinence and other teen issues across the country.
Representatives from agencies that are involved in and supportive of the AIM Project attended a quarterly network meeting held Thursday at Charles Henderson Child
Health Care Center.
Terry Watkins, project director, said the ad campaign was the culmination of many hours of preparation and hard work.
"The AIM Project has had a very positive impact on many young people in our area," Watkins
said. "It also has been a great benefit to parents. Now, the message of abstinence and our mission to break down barriers between teens and parents are going nationwide. We are very proud of the ad campaign and believe that it will help to reach young people with the message that making healthy choices means bright futures."
Mary Palo represented the the Hive Group at the meeting. The Hive Group is the marketing agency for the AIM Project.
Palo presented copies of the BFT/FTB (Back-to-Front, Front-to-Back) magazine to the group.
The magazine takes a new approach to reaching today's youths.
Palo said parents often need a starting place when talking with their children about issues affecting them. The magazine will help to bring down the communication barriers that too often exist between parent and child.
The magazine is written for both parents and teens. Turn the magazine one way and it includes information for parents. Flip it over, and it's a teen magazine.
"The magazine is a piece of communication that we can put in the hands of teens and their parents that will enable them to come together and talk about what they read," Palo said. "The magazine will be a valuable communication tool for parents. We are excited about the response it has received."
The magazine is distributed in a regional wrapper that includes information about local issues and includes local kids.
The national advertising campaign was shot at First Baptist Church in Troy and features local youths in both the television commercials and the magazine. Matt Clower, Vernon Shank, Holly Peters, Erica Proffer, Megan Graham and Leslie Griffin will now have their 15 minutes of fame on a national level, Watkins said.
"We have received tremendous response from the campaign," Watkins said. "WTVY-Dothan has a viewing audience of 350,000 so that's a good sample and a good indication of how the campaign will be received all across the nation."