Parkinson’s Action Network
Fox & Ali Congressional Testimony
Issues/Challenges:
In the late 1990s, the Parkinson’s Action Network began a partnership with celebrity Michael J. Fox, a current Parkinson’s disease sufferer, to raise awareness of the disease and to generate well-needed government funding for Parkinson’s research. In 1999, news media from around the world covered Fox’s premier testimony before congress advocating the need for research, raising necessary awareness among the general public. By 2002, however, Fox’s appearances before Congress regarding the disease became less and less watched by and interesting to the general public. Unfortunately, not even the addition of Muhammad Ali to the Parkinson’s Action Network campaign could excite the media into covering such testimonies, partially because neither celebrity were available for interviews nor would they discuss the highly controversial topic of human cloning.
Strategies:
- Saturate national media outlets in Washington, DC regarding the hearing
- Contact the Washington, DC bureaus of major newspapers and entice them to cover the hearing
- Focus most of the outreach activities on the major wire services and television network outlets to generate maximum participation
Activities:
- Assemble a media advisory and press release
- Distribute such materials to hundreds of national news desk editors, producers and reporters in the Washington, DC area
- Using blast e-mail, mail, countless phone calls, and the Senate Press Gallery, inundate every news outlet with information regarding this hearing
Results:
Despite the fact that the hearing occurred the same day the Washington, DC police discovered the body of Chandra Levy and the majority of attention by national news organizations therefore focused on the Levy story, Lindberg Group was able to quickly secure reliable coverage of the hearing on C-SPAN, CNN, and in People Magazine, Roll Call, the Associated Press, and United Press International, among many other news outlets.