By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterSOME PEOPLE have been calling the newspaper advertisements 'inspiring'. One talk show host even dubbed it a 'magnificent idea'.
But whatever the encomiums, the highly-visible ad campaign by the Guardsman Group dubbed 'The Values of Leadership' is creating quite a buzz in Jamaica. The ads use quotations of great worldwide leaders and icons whose words and deeds have positively inspired and enriched countless lives alongside the tag line 'Leadership is earned'.
The full-page ads have been appearing in the Monday edition of The Gleaner for the past three weeks, using the images and famous words of American clergy and civil rights leader of the movement for black equality Martin Luther King Jr., Indian nationalist and peace advocate of the non-violence movement Mahatma Gandhi, and the 35th U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
The brainchild of advertising executive Robert MacMillan, the germ of the corporate-sponsored campaign is to create a wellspring of optimism and remind the public that history has recorded the achievements of great inspirational leaders and visionaries, and that they need not be frustrated or discouraged by the poor cardboard cut-out facsimiles often foisted upon them.
"We feel that the country is lacking persons in leadership and mentor roles, and this series will hopefully remind the public that there are persons who have inspired and motivated us in the past, and who have earned leadership," Kenny Benjamin, chairman of the Guardsman Group, said.
"So far, the response has been excellent, one woman called to say that she was contemplating suicide, and then she saw the ads, and her mood
lifted... but she refused to give her name. We plan to eventually do between six and eight of them depending on the budget, and we might even reduce the sizes of the ads to go a little longer because we need for our young people to emulate and seek out other role models other than dancehall artistes."
REPRINT
Members of the public who want a reprint of the advertisements suitable for framing have also been calling the Guardsman Group in droves.
"We have been getting a wonderful response from the public, and people have called and said some very uplifting things. Right now, we have a list of names, close to a hundred names, of persons who want to frame the ads, some even want the whole series, and the MacMillan agency has been getting quite a few requests for them to be framed as well," Sheila Benjamin, group director of advertising and public relations officer of the Guardsman Group, said.
The first of the framed copies will be ready for the public within the next two weeks.
"The final stage will be an essay competition which will be promoted to school children below a certain age, and the essays will be based on the values of leadership and what constitutes true leadership. The winner will receive a scholarship courtesy of Guardsman Group," Mr. MacMillan said.
