Best Buddies International has teamed up with Clear Channel Outdoor’s NY Division to help expand the nonprofit’s “Global Ambassadors” campaign.
The campaign, which features public figures and celebrities, including Rob Lowe, Cindy Crawford, Eunice K. Shriver II, and Guy Fieri, aims to help bring attention to the Best Buddies mission – creating opportunities for friendship, employment, and leadership training for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
As part of the campaign launch, Clear Channel Outdoor contributed space on billboards on three major highways—the 1-495/Long Island Expressway, the Bronx River Parkway, and the Brooklyn/Queens Expressway—for a four-week period beginning Monday, April 30. Marking the campaign’s phase two expansion, 17 digital billboards appearing across New Jersey and ten digital junior posters across White Plains, New York, were unveiled for a four-week period beginning Monday, May 28, 2012.
People with IDD account for between 2-3 percent of the U.S. population; Best Buddies impacts approximately 35,000 people with and without IDD in New York State alone.
“In many ways, the Global Ambassadors campaign represents the next step in the Disability Rights Movement, given how Best Buddies teaches people with intellectual and developmental disabilities the skills needed to successfully self-advocate,” says Anthony Kennedy Shriver, Founder and Chairman of Best Buddies International. “We are very grateful to Clear Channel Outdoor for its generous support, and we’re especially excited about the Global Ambassador campaign’s use of billboards to get the word out about how people can help those with special needs.”
“Clear Channel Outdoor applauds the work being done by Mr. Shriver and Best Buddies and is thrilled to lend its support any way we can,” Harry Coghlan, General Manager, Clear Channel Outdoor, NY Division. “It is important to note that this latest campaign expands on Clear Channel Outdoor’s philanthropic commitment to Best Buddies, which is national in scope and began 10 years ago. Outdoor advertising is a powerful, flexible medium that is ideally suited to bringing attention to worthy charitable organizations such as Best Buddies.”
