CFS Public Awareness Campaign: Countdown to the Launch

Famous fashion and celebrity photographer George Lange photographed eight CFS patients and noted CFS experts Dr. Anthony Komaroff and Dr. David Bell for the traveling photo exhibit. Photo shoots took place in Atlanta, Boston and New York City in February.

The launch of the CFS public awareness campaign has been set for June 7 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Members of the national media will be invited to the press conference announcing the kickoff of the campaign, which will extend throughout 2006 and 2007.

With only eight weeks to go before the June launch, work on various campaign components is in full swing. The photographs for the traveling photo exhibit, “The Faces of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” have all been taken by renowned celebrity photographer George Lange. The photos are being printed on huge banners and paired with a quote from each of the 10 photo subjects to illustrate the impact of CFS on people’s lives. The exhibit will travel across the country, and work is progressing on scheduling venues to make sure that hundreds of thousands of people have the opportunity to see the exhibit, learn about this illness and how it impacts lives.

The television PSA was shot in Los Angeles in March. It took three days for preproduction and filming for the 30-second spot, which was shot in three separate locations. The three scenes will illustrate a typical day in a CFS patient's life.

We're also moving forward on the television public service announcement (PSA). After hiring a director, photographer and cast, the 30-second spot was shot in March in Los Angeles. This month, the editing and voiceover will be completed and music will be added to the PSA under the guidance of GMMB, the advertising firm the Association hired to work on the campaign. Then the PSA will be duplicated and sent to hundreds of television stations throughout the country.

On another front, GMMB and the CFIDS Association have been working on the print ad for the campaign. Copy has been written, the photographer hired, the location scouting completed and the ad shot. The full-page color ad will appear in selected national magazines from July through November of 2006.

Educational materials are also in development. A CFS brochure for patients, a toolkit for health care professionals and a new CFS website are all being written and designed. The brochure and toolkit will be available both in printed and downloadable versions so that more people will have access to them.

The $4 million CFS public awareness campaign is a collaborative project of the CFIDS Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It’s being funded by the CDC to educate the general public and health care professionals about CFS.

We're in the final countdown — look for an update on other prelaunch campaign activities in the spring 2006 CFIDS Chronicle and the May CFIDSLink.