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You won’t believe what’s on “Tavis” tonight…

Generating Buzz for “Tavis Smiley” on PBS

The Challenge: Tavis Smiley is a nationally known media personality. But he wanted his signature PBS show, “Tavis Smiley” — and the spotlight it shines on current events and social issues — to have a greater impact in the popular mainstream.

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Promoting a Fair Wage Apparel Brand

The Challenge: Alta Gracia, owned by Knights Apparel, a leading supplier of branded athletic apparel for sports teams and universities, is a new apparel brand sold at college bookstores all over the United States. It is the first apparel brand to pay its workers a “living wage,” enough so that the people who make the t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies, and their families can lift themselves out of poverty. The start-up company, named for the town of Villa Altagracia in the Dominican Republic where the factory is located, had no advertising budget and therefore had to rely exclusively on traditional and social media, as well as in-store signs and clothing tags to promote itself to the university community.

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36,000 Americans die from the flu each year. A shot can save a life.

Stick with the Flu Shot

The Challenge: Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans come down with the flu. For people with asthma, the illness can be especially deadly, yet only 10 percent of children and 39 percent of adults get vaccinated annually.

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When NBC announced it would start airing hard liquor ads on TV, the AMA sprang into action.

Keeping Network TV Liquor-Free

The Challenge: In 2001, NBC became the first—and only—national network to break the 50-year voluntary ban on televising hard liquor ads when it aired an ad for Smirnoff vodka during “SNL.” Health groups concerned about the influence of liquor ads on children were not getting traction. The fear was that other networks would follow.

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Fenton is currently engaged with Avon Products Inc., the world’s largest direct seller and a leading beauty company with more than $10 billion in annual revenue, supporting the corporate sustainability team on the global environmental platform, Hello Green Tomorrow, driving awareness about the social, economic, environmental implications of deforestation in the Atlantic Rainforest and Indonesia, and engaging people to take personal action, including fundraising through Avon channels to support programs of The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund. Read More »

Making Baby Bottles Safer

Positioning BornFree as a Leading Consumer Health Advocate

The Challenge: Ninety-five percent of baby bottles on the market contain a hormone-disrupting chemical called Bisphenol A, otherwise known as BPA. In recent years, scientific consensus has confirmed that the chemical, used to harden plastic, causes cancer in animals, even at low doses. By 2006, BornFree, a company that produces BPA-free baby bottles, already enjoyed healthy sales among a devoted, niche audience. But it wanted to break into the mainstream.

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The Challenge: The Philanthropic sector today is a multi-billion dollar industry. For more than three decades, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy has been a foundation watchdog group committed to holding the sector accountable for serving the public good, not private interest. On its 35^th anniversary in 2011, NCRP launched the Philanthropy’s Promise initiative to encourage more giving that benefits communities with the least wealth and opportunity.

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In the healthcare reform debate, someone had to stand up for abortion coverage.

“It’s No Joke”

The Challenge: During the 2010 healthcare reform debates, the Center for Reproductive Rights wanted to rally opposition to proposed bans on the abortion coverage millions of American women already have by underscoring the dangerous, real-life consequences.

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The Corporation for a Skilled Workforce wanted help connecting with their target audience: cities in need of an economic rebound.
“Good Jobs, Thriving Communities”

The Challenge: The Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) is a nonprofit public interest agency that brings together expertise from government, business and higher education to both develop and execute strategies that help cities find solutions to the workforce challenges of the new economy. But CSW staff had struggled with how to describe the value of their work to prospective partners.

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California’s public schools harbored a secret scandal.

Lifting the Veil on Teacher Salaries

The Challenge: How much teachers are paid has a big influence on the quality of teachers a school can attract. But in California, teacher salaries are masked by the state’s accounting methods, which only required reporting on average salaries at the district level – leaving inequities at the school level hidden.  That’s why The Education-Trust West conducted its own investigation into the unequal distribution of funding for California’s public schools.

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Can a blockbuster film influence public attitude toward global warming?

Harnessing Hollywood to Set the Record Straight on Climate Change

The Challenge: When Fenton got wind that The Day After Tomorrow was slated for release in 2004, we knew we had a golden opportunity on our hands. The blockbuster movie about the effects of climate disaster showed Los Angeles getting wiped out by tornadoes, Tokyo hammered by hailstones and a tsunami wave burying New York under 50 feet of ice. Fiction, yes, but a great opportunity to raise awareness and drive action on the real threat of global warming.

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Getting the Best Mileage for “What Would Jesus Drive?”

Would Jesus drive a gas-guzzling SUV?

The Challenge: Environmentalists realized they had to preach beyond the green choir to get traction on global warming. That’s how “What Would Jesus Drive” was born.

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Keeping our nation’s economic future secure

The Challenge: The reckless behavior of the big banks that led to the recession had created traction for reform legislation to clean up Wall Street. But it wasn’t going to be easy. The big banks, who strongly opposed reform, were armed with millions of dollars and an army of lobbyists.  Sen. Dick Durbin once said of the banking industry’s control over Congress, “Frankly, they own the place.”

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A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Transforming America’s Housing Policy

Challenge: Conferences come and go—and they’re notoriously difficult to get media attention for. The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University wanted to makes sure its conference on housing policy didn’t meet a similar fate.

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Out of the Katrina disaster sprouted something green.

A Green Vision for Post-Katrina New Orleans

Challenge: In 2006, Global Green USA launched an international sustainable architecture competition to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. They had a huge asset: Brad Pitt was the competition’s jury chairman. But they needed a media strategy to maximize the opportunity.

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Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn wanted their book to spark a movement.

Helping Nonprofits Leverage Half the Sky for their Cause

The Challenge: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn wanted their book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, to be much more than a bestseller. They wanted to leverage the attention the book received to garner more public support for the important work nonprofit groups are doing in the developing world to improve women’s lives.

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What we don’t know is killing us.

Creating a Constituency for Change: National Violent Death Reporting System

Challenge: Fifty thousand Americans die violently every year. But we know very little about the circumstances and contributing factors – details that could help prevent future suicides and homicides. While the U.S. government tracks such data for road fatalities, it doesn’t for violent deaths.

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Fighting for national healthcare reform

A Win, Decades in the Making

The Challenge:  Healthcare reform was shaping up to be an epic political battle. Leading progressive advocates in the fight, including MoveOn.org, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the Progressive Change Committee (PCCC), Campaign for America’s Future and ProgressiveCongress.org couldn’t compete dollar-for-dollar with insurance companies or the drug lobby.

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John McCain said he would keep U.S. troops in Iraq for “100 years.” Big mistake.
“Not Alex”

The Challenge: June 2008: Neither presidential hopeful John McCain nor Barack Obama had emerged as the favorite in the polls. Meanwhile, roughly 13 percent of voters remained undecided. While the economic downturn loomed large, the Iraq War remained a critical wedge issue for many Americans. So when Sen. McCain remarked at a press conference that he would keep U.S. troops in Iraq “for 100 years” if necessary, Fenton saw an opportunity for Moveon.org Political Action and AFSCME to connect with voters.

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When you’re fighting for LGBT rights, you need a strong brand to back you up.

The Audacity to Fight for Justice

The Challenge: For more than 30 years, the National Center for Lesbian Rights has been winning precedent-setting court cases to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. But they aren’t the only — nor necessarily the most well-known — legal organization in their field.  It was time to rethink their brand.

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Each year, tens of thousands of horses in the US are slaughtered for meat

Keeping Horses Off the Dinner Table

The Challenge: Tens of thousands of horses in America are shipped abroad each year to be slaughtered for human consumption. A group of horse advocates wanted to build a movement to pass legislation to protect these horses. They decided to attract support from horse lovers — especially lovers of horse racing and other competitions. They needed to create an independent constituency apart from traditional animal rights groups.

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Four years after 9/11, anti-Muslim hate crimes and negative perceptions of Islam remained high. Something had to be done.

An Accurate Reflection of the American Muslim Community

The Challenge: Four years after 9/11, negative public perception of Islam among Americans remained high; anti-Muslim bias crimes rose by more than 50 percent between 2003 to 2004, according to a report by The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Anti-Muslim sentiment was being fanned by media personalities and web sites that propagated hate, but the voices of American Muslims were not emerging as a powerful counter-force.

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If you’re an environmentalist, you vote, right? Not necessarily.

Patagonia’s Vote the Environment

The Challenge: When leaders at Patagonia Inc. learned that 30 percent of Sierra Club members didn’t vote in the 2000 presidential elections, they were moved to do more to get people to connect their passion for the outdoors to their politics.

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It’s time to take child’s play seriously.

Making Recess Count with Playworks

The Challenge: For many principals and teachers, recess has become the toughest part of the day, the flashpoint for playground fights and referrals. Some schools have eliminated recess altogether. But a growing body of research shows play is essential for kids’ development. Playworks is pioneering a program where trained coaches lead structured playtime across America. But it wanted more education leaders to catch onto the idea that playground activities could have a positive spill-over effect in the classroom.

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Give Peace a Vote

The Peace Primary

Challenge: In 2007, the Ploughshares Fund, the largest foundation in the country focused exclusively on peace and security issues, wanted to celebrate its 25^th anniversary by positioning peace as a top-of-mind priority and attracting new supporters to the cause.

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The Polly Klaas Foundation wanted to do more to prevent child abductions and recover abducted children across the country.

AMBER Alert: Recovering Abducted Children Across 50 States

The Challenge: Ten years after the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, the Polly Klaas Foundation was well known in California for supporting families and police in thousands of individual missing children cases. But it wanted to deepen its impact at the national and policy levels.

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Public/Private Ventures was tired of being behind the scenes.

Positioning Public/Private Ventures as a Leader in Social Innovation

Challenge: For 30 years Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) has been a leader in designing and funding innovative social programs that help disenfranchised people, from former prisoners to at-risk youth, get back on their feet. But their behind-the-scenes role meant it was hard to get the type of public recognition critical for influencing policy and fundraising.

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How to stand out as a tree in a forest.

A New Look for the Sempervirens Fund

The Challenge: Founded in 1900, the Sempervirens Fund had longevity on its side when it came to brand positioning. But over the years, as more groups claimed the protection of redwood trees as their mission, the Fund realized it needed to do more to set itself apart.

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What are the odds that the commentator on TV is a woman?

Closing the Pundit Gender Gap

The Challenge: On the Sunday morning political talk shows, women represent only 14% of guest appearances. Ask journalists why they don’t quote and feature women experts more and they’ll tell you they don’t know any.

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Who needs bottled water when you can go green – and fizzy?

SodaStream: Better Than Recycling

The Challenge: SodaStream, an Israel-based company, makes home soda machines that turn tap water into sparkling water in 30 seconds.  The company already enjoyed strong overseas sales. But the product hadn’t yet broken through in the U.S.

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The Grapes of Wrath? I can relate.

California Stories: Reading The Grapes of Wrath

The Challenge: The California Council for the Humanities wanted Californians to read The Grapes of Wrath as part of its mission to highlight the role of humanities in our lives. But how to convince people to read a 500-page novel about the Depression-era dust bowl?

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California needs more healthcare workers. Stat.

The California Wellness Foundation

The Challenge: By 2020, California’s population will grow by 10 million people – the equivalent of adding the population of Michigan. This increase includes a 70-percent jump in the 65+ demographic, putting unprecedented demand on health workers. But professionals like lab techs, medical assistants and others who make up the backbone of the healthcare system are in short supply.

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A lot can change in 160 years. Just ask The New York Academy of Medicine.

Revitalizing a Brand: The New York Academy of Medicine

The Challenge: Few organizations can claim as long and distinguished a history as The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM). But, a lot can change in 160 years.  In that time, NYAM grew from a small professional society of New York doctors to a national organization with expansive programs, and their logo and tagline  — “Enhancing the health of the public since 1847” — no longer reflected who they were.

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California’s communities of color were living in smoggiest cities.

A Policy Voice for Environmental Justice Leaders

The Challenge: Four of the nation’s 10 smoggiest cities are in California’s Central Valley. This dirty air problem disproportionately impacts communities of color. Yet, their voices are underrepresented in policy debates.

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Communities of color were living in smoggiest cities.

Giving a Policy Voice to Communities of Color

The Challenge: Four of the nation’s 10 smoggiest cities are in California’s Central Valley. This dirty air problem disproportionately impacts communities of color – the same people whose voices are underrepresented in environmental policymaking.

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Shaping a 150-Year Old Brand

The Challenge: The YMCA means something to nearly everyone, so the YMCA of San Francisco was uncertain about how to clearly communicate its brand.

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What if the world took action to end violence against women?

Creating a Global Online Strategy for UNIFEM’s “Say NO-UNiTE to End Violence Against Women” Campaign

The Challenge: The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) wanted to create a platform for people around the world to show and share their support for ending violence against women. The goal of the “Say NO-UNiTE to End Violence Against Women” campaign was to reach 100,000 actions by International Women’s Day.

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Words can fan the flames of conflict. But they can defuse them too.

Training Global Experts to Improve East-West Relations

The Challenge:  After the terrorist train bombings in Madrid in 2004 that claimed 191 lives, the United Nations was spurred to create a new initiative, the UN Alliance of Civilizations, to improve understanding and relations among nations and counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism. The Alliance’s advisory group proposed creating a rapid-response media project that would help defuse the war of words that typically followed conflict and stem them before they spiral into further bloodshed.

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“Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” – Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
“Wikipedia Forever”

The Challenge: Every month, more than 330 million people around the world use Wikipedia, the world’s largest and most popular online encyclopedia. Yet many people forget – or don’t realize – that Wikipedia is actually a nonprofit initiative that relies on donations to survive.

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Women for Women International had been on “Oprah” five times. It wasn’t enough.

Positioning Women for Women International as a Policy Leader

The Challenge: The exposure on “Oprah” was phenomenal. But Executive Director Zainab Salbi wanted more. To truly make a difference in the lives of women in conflict regions, she knew her organization needed to be taken seriously in the policy arena.

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