Case $1-$ Celeb$-$Relief

John Russell, who goes by Jack, is a busy executive by day, but likes to volunteer at a local, no$-$kill animal shelter at least one weekend a month. He helps by walking dogs and feeding them and, given his business acumen, the shelter calls on him to do more administrative tasks as well, anything from animal intake to giving the shelter advice about their website. At the shelter$$s board meeting six months ago, Jack was asked to propose a low$-$budget $($very low$)$ advertising campaign. He$$s supposed to present his proposal next week. Jack$$s been thinking about how to pull off an ad campaign on a shoestring budget.

It helps that animal shelters tend to be local businesses. So far, his proposal includes two billboards: one to be located on a highway downtown that runs north$-$south, the other on one that runs east$-$west. He hopes they can afford two or three radio spots of advertising. But if the shelter can$$t pop for the radio ads, he might at least be able to use one or two of their upcoming events as an opportunity to get PR announcements on the radio. The main part of the campaign would be the development and dissemination of brochures about the shelter$$s good works that would be sent to homes as direct market$-$ing and posted in local grocery stores and other high$-$traffic venues, as their respective managers permit. In terms of the content of the campaign, Jack had recently read an MSN$.$com article

on how many stars lend their names to causes, from George Clooney shedding light on genocide in Dafur, to Elton John fighting HIV, Angelina Jolie and her UN ambassador$-$ship, Elton John supporting AIDS research as well as the Humane Society, and, of course, Bono$$s perennial fight against world poverty. Jack thinks the same principle could hold here. Next week, he will propose to the shelter$$s NPO $($nonprofit organization$)$ board that a celebrity become their spokesperson. One question is which celebrity would make sense? He has several slides, listing several options. Discuss each.

Case Questions:

Which option$($s$)$ make sense? Why?

$1.$ Jack wants to reach out to a star of Clooney et al$.$s status. It would be cool.

$2.$ The shelter$$s manager$-$in$-$chief.

$3.$ The town$$s mayor.

$4.$ One of the state$$s representatives.

$5.$ Alex Green, who graduated from a local high school and went on to be really successful and who has given money to local charities since making it big.