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Cronin And Co. Shoots New TV Ad For Connecticut Children's Medical Center [The Hartford Courant :: ]
[August 21, 2014]

Cronin And Co. Shoots New TV Ad For Connecticut Children's Medical Center [The Hartford Courant :: ]


(Hartford Courant (CT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 21--WEST HARTFORD -- A film crew of 25 spent four hours Thursday morning rehearsing and shooting a 10-second scene: an 8-year-old coming home from Connecticut Children's Medical Center to meet his family.



It was the last scene of the 30-second TV commercial that the advertising agency Cronin and Co. is creating. The spot, called "Coming Home," tells a story of the boy, played by actor Jake Katzman from Huntington, N.Y., who returns home after spending time at the hospital.

"The whole idea has been a child isn't truly healed until a child is home," said Steve Wolfberg, chief creative officer of Cronin and Co. "And that's the brand promise of Connecticut Children's Medical Center. So it's a beautiful little story." "Right after we got the account, when the team was taking a tour of the hospital, a child burst out of the elevator shouting, 'I'm going home,'" Wolfberg said. "That was a big inspiration for the TV idea." Coming home is what really matters for a healed child, said Pat Kiniry, art director at the ad agency and another member of the creative team. He hopes to create an emotional connection with viewers.


The team planned to finish the shooting after 12 hours of work Thursday. It chose a house on Overbrook Road in West Hartford for the home scene and moved to the hospital in Hartford for the rest of the filming.

The agency selected the actors and actresses from 50 to 100 candidates auditioning for the roles last week. The lead actor, Katzman, has appeared in a few movies and in the TV series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." The home scene, including the child, his parents, his grandparents and the family dog, is targeted to consumers who care about children.

"The primary audiences is moms, but obviously families," said Dean Rapoza, a spokesman for the hospital. "We hope that anyone with children or who loves children relate to this ad." The hospital is spending $500,000 to have the commercial made, placed on TV, and marketed online and through social media.

It is expected to be aired on local broadcast and cable networks in mid-September, Wolfberg said.

We want Connecticut Children's to be the first place parents think of for specialty medical care for their children, to be 'top of mind' so parents know where to take their kids -- before the need arises," he said.

The advertising agency, based in Glastonbury, worked cooperated with the hospital in the late 1990s and created the well-known tagline, "Kids are great. We just make them better." ___ (c)2014 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) Visit The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) at www.courant.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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