Special needs entertainment news
Monday November 20, 2006
Celebrities say thanks to benefit St. Jude
A Thanksgiving-themed ad campaign urging parents to "Give thanks for the healthy kids in your life and give to those who are not" features Jennifer Aniston, Bernie Mac, Jimmy Smits, Ray Romano and Robin Williams telling the stories of children with cancer who were helped by St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. To view all the ads, and to have a good little cry over all these sweet stories, go to St. Jude's Thanks and Giving site and click on the "Celebrity Friends Video" tab halfway down the page to see an ad featuring all the stars. To see additional ads featuring individual stars, click on the words "Celebrity TV Spots" below the video screen. You can also see Aniston modeling a "Give Thanks" t-shirt in St. Jude's Gift Shop.
Kids with cancer on Today
St. Jude's Thanks and Giving campaign will also be featured throughout this week on the Today Show, where Marlo Thomas will present stories of children fighting cancer at St. Jude's. This morning's segment followed a young gymnast who went from working her way toward a spot on the Olympic team to battling cancer. Others to be featured this week include siblings with retinoblastoma, another sibling pair with sickle cell anemia, and a child who has triumphed over cancer three times.
Test your knowledge of musicians with disabilities
The BBC's disability oriented Ouch! site has a quiz to check out your awareness of people with disabilities in the music business. The site also has information on "the world's first accessible DVD" -- a Doctor Who Series 2 Box Set featuring audio navigation for the visually impaired.
Got a hot tip or a question about an upcoming special-needs entertainment offering? Drop a mention of it in the comments and I'll check it out.
A Thanksgiving-themed ad campaign urging parents to "Give thanks for the healthy kids in your life and give to those who are not" features Jennifer Aniston, Bernie Mac, Jimmy Smits, Ray Romano and Robin Williams telling the stories of children with cancer who were helped by St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. To view all the ads, and to have a good little cry over all these sweet stories, go to St. Jude's Thanks and Giving site and click on the "Celebrity Friends Video" tab halfway down the page to see an ad featuring all the stars. To see additional ads featuring individual stars, click on the words "Celebrity TV Spots" below the video screen. You can also see Aniston modeling a "Give Thanks" t-shirt in St. Jude's Gift Shop.
Kids with cancer on Today
St. Jude's Thanks and Giving campaign will also be featured throughout this week on the Today Show, where Marlo Thomas will present stories of children fighting cancer at St. Jude's. This morning's segment followed a young gymnast who went from working her way toward a spot on the Olympic team to battling cancer. Others to be featured this week include siblings with retinoblastoma, another sibling pair with sickle cell anemia, and a child who has triumphed over cancer three times.
Test your knowledge of musicians with disabilities
The BBC's disability oriented Ouch! site has a quiz to check out your awareness of people with disabilities in the music business. The site also has information on "the world's first accessible DVD" -- a Doctor Who Series 2 Box Set featuring audio navigation for the visually impaired.
Got a hot tip or a question about an upcoming special-needs entertainment offering? Drop a mention of it in the comments and I'll check it out.
Comments
“Give thanks for the healthy kids in your life and give to those who are not”
What a horrible phrase for a program that is trying to do the right thing. I really like when famous people use the fame to raise awareness and raise money. But, be thankful for our healthy kids and give money to the rest is just horribly phrased.
You know, Mike, I agree with you on that. I didn’t think about it when I was watching the ads (maybe because they made me cry and lose all sense of reason), but typing it out for this blog entry, what nagged at me was, Are we not supposed to give thanks for our non-”healthy” kids? My kids are physically healthy but developmentally complex; do I get to be thankful for them or not? It’s just a problematic tag line for lots of reasons. I’m going to do a poll on this tomorrow, but in the meantime … anybody got a better slogan to suggest?
The best I can come up with is:
“…asks the public to give thanks for the kids in their lives, and give to those who are not healthy, with the hope that some day all children will be healthy.”
I’m not a slogan writer. I did ask readers of my blog for their opinions. The direct link to the post is:
Fund Raising for special needs children
Nice post — I’m linking to it from the survey I put up for this today.
As far as a slogan, maybe something like, “If your child is healthy give thanks, and give hope to a child who is not” ?
I’ll keep an eye on your blog to see what your readers come up with.
As I said in the polls section, I don’t find the wording offensive at all. The real intent is very clear. I think we have to be careful about being so oversensitive we pick apart everything. People might stop giving attention to our kids if they’re afraid they will be called to the carpet for imagined slights. If we try hard enough, we can always try to find something to complain about, and forget about the positive, bigger picture. I say: Don’t sweat the small stuff, honor the good intentions.
Cynthia
It has taken me some time to find the article related to the stars who were in the commercial for St Jude, but I finally made it to this site. My son was 14 when diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and the news didn’t really register with him that he had cancer until he watched that television spot with Robin Williams. The expression on his face is one I will never forget. It is our hope that our son will be cured from his cancer. Healthy children and medically challenged children all need our support. Thanks for sharing all of your comments about the St Jude wording. I was crying so hard I didn’t really realize their faux pas.
many hugs
Becky