From the Desk of K. Kimberly McCleary

June 8, 2006

Kim and celebrated photographer George Lange, portrait artist for "The Faces of CFS" exhibit that will be displayed in public venues across the country.

Spark!

The awareness campaign that we kicked off yesterday marks both an end and a beginning. We have spent many months planning and preparing for this day, conducting focus group research, developing appropriate messages and compelling creative concepts, writing, revising and designing new print and electronic materials and keeping all the details flowing to the right people and places. Even though we will continue adding new elements to the phase of the campaign that launched yesterday, we conclude the immensely important “pre-production” stage of campaign development. And today we begin our public outreach, with the debut of the print ad and the first look at CDC’s updated CFS website, www.cdc.gov/cfs (still under construction).

We are, of course, disappointed not to have spent June 7 at the National Press Club, hosting a press conference to formally announce the campaign. We’re working with CDC to set a new date for the media event and to revise our plans to make sure we have an even more newsworthy story to tell—a story that underscores the severity and wide-ranging impact of CFS. With a commitment from CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding to personally participate and new peer-reviewed research documenting the magnitude of CFS, we’re confident the event will attract even more media coverage than the one originally planned for today.

Kim and actress Jo McGinley (center with Jenny Isaacs, Dave Tobey and Liza Stutts of GMMB, the firm that created the concepts for the ad and PSA's.

I’ve been the Association’s chief staff executive for more than 15 years, and this campaign is more than the result of months of work by many dozens of people, it’s the beginning realization of many hopes and dreams that people I’ve met over the past decade and a half have shared with me. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with so many talented professionals in helping tell the stories I’ve heard, in ways that will allow us to connect with undiagnosed patients, caregivers, health care professionals and the general public. We look forward to sharing more about each element of the campaign when we launch our new campaign microsite, www.cfids.org/spark.orgcfs, later this month. There are a lot of people to thank, but it seems more appropriate to do that when we can share more of the fruits of their labors with you – the ultimate inspiration for our work.

Jo McGinley poses for photographer Ryan Romero, for a shot used to create the magazine advertisement.

In the next few days, I look forward to picking up the July issue of Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens on the newsstand, and to flipping through the pages to find actress Jo McGinley leaning against a bathroom mirror, with a look of despair and anguish on her face. To find the symptoms of CFS projected against that mirror; to see the small copy on the bottom of the page explaining what CFS is and why it’s so important. To see the government logos that instantly convey credibility. To see our ad, telling our story. To put an end to my private fears that this campaign would never happen. To feel the
beginning of possibilities created now that it has.

Spark! Awareness ignited!