New advertising: @GSP creates clothing line to train baby brains

The best instances of great client-agency partnership is when the ad agency goes beyond the role of a creative services provider and becomes a true business solution provider. In 1907, the California Fruit Growers Exchange was looking for ways to increase the consumption of oranges. The legendary Albert Lasker of Lord & Thomas ad agency (which later became Foote Cone & Belding) proposed that they create a unified brand to represent all the orange growers. The Sunkist brand was born. He also suggested that they launch a new product: juice from oranges. It increased the fruit consumption per serving in American households and gave birth to a category we take for granted nowadays.

I was reminded of this when I read about the latest campaign, titled Talk, Read, Sing, for the Bay Area Council by Goodby Silverstein & Partners. The campaign highlights how simple actions done every day from birth—such as describing objects seen during a bus ride, singing songs, reading aloud or telling stories—can significantly improve babies’ ability to build vocabulary and can boost their brain development.

“What makes this campaign different is that it’s not just another brochure,” said Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council. “We are bringing learning opportunities to Oakland by giving parents actual tools—a onesie for the baby, a blanket, a bath towel—that will spark conversation.”

The campaign is based on a real insight and a belief that many parents have: the more you talk to your infant baby and expose her to stimuli like music, words, colours etc., the better it is for their growth.

Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Aside from television, the tools provided for parents include the clothing lines and prompts in the form of billboards and bus shelters which provide parents ideas to talk to their baby.

Loved it. Another good example of the new advertising.