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Just Do It

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Whether you view it as an inspirational rallying cry or a bullying command, the slogan 'Just Do It' is hard to avoid in modern life. Accompanied by the familiar Nike swoosh, it appears on bags, T-shirts and billboards all over the world. As a statement it sums up the sports brand: it is competitive, forceful, direct, as lean and powerful as the athletes that appear alongside it in Nike's ads.

Above: Nike's first dedicated women's campaign appeared in 1991 and linked women playing sports with a new kind of female empowerment
Considering how intrinsic to the brand it now seems, the slogan had inauspicious beginnings. It was created in 1987 by Wieden + Kennedy to accompany Nike's first major television campaign, which included commercials for running, walking, cross-training, basketball and women's fitness. "Each spot was developed by a different creative team and was markedly different from the others," remembers Dan Wieden, founder of the agency and author of the Nike line. "In reviewing the work the night before the client presentation, I felt we needed a tagline to give some unity to the work, one that spoke to the hardest hardcore athletes as well as those talking up a morning walk."

Wieden drew on a surprising source for inspiration. In Doug Pray's 2009 documentary about advertising, Art & Copy, he confesses that the idea for the line was sparked by the last words of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, who said "Let's do it!" to the firing squad before his execution. This may not be quite the brand heritage that Nike would ideally have chosen, yet at the time such matters were largely irrelevant, as nobody was convinced that the tagline was even necessary, let alone had any inkling of the impact it would have.

"Creatives in the agency all questioned if we really needed it," says Wieden now. "Nike questioned it. I said, 'Look, I think we do. I believe we have too many disparate commercials that don't add up to anything without a tagline. I'm not married to the thing. We can drop it next round.' A lot of shrugged shoulders, but they let it ride."

The response from audiences was definitive. "The general public surprised us all," Wieden continues. "Immediately Nike started getting letters, phone calls, so did Wieden + Kennedy.

For some reason that line resonated deeply in the athletic community and just as deeply with people who had little or no connection to sports." For some, it became a doctrine to live by. Nike then picked up on this in some of its advertising, particularly in a series of posters aimed at women that allied a commitment to sports with female empowerment. A TV commercial in 1995 further reiterated the message. The spot stars a number of girls and young women speaking directly to camera and pronouncing a series of statements: "If you let me play sports, I will like myself more.... I will have more self-confidence.... I will be 60% less likely to get breast cancer.... I will suffer less depression....I will be more likely to leave a man who beats me....I will be less likely to get pregnant before I want to....I will learn what it means to be strong." The ad concludes with the slogan, 'Just Do It'.

Nike continues to use the tagline across much of its advertising and branding today. "'Just Do It' is still as relevant to us as a brand today as it was 23 years ago," says Davide Grasso, VP of global brand marketing at Nike. "It has been translated into many, many languages," he continues. "One of my favourite examples is this one: The American Foundation for the Blind gave Nike the 1995 Access Award for its creation and distribution of a 'Just Do It' poster done in braille."

Interestingly, Nike itself does not see the line as simply a slogan, but more as a brand identity or philosophy. "We actually don't believe in slogans," says Grasso. "Instead, what we've found to be most effective is inviting people to join us in what we believe in and what we stand for. And what we stand for is to serve and honour athletes.

"I think that's why 'Just Do It' has had such an impact over the last 20 years and continues to. It's genuine and speaks to our core mission."
Discover more of Creative Review's top 20 slogans

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The history of Nike's Just Do It slogan - Creative review

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Whether you view it as an inspirational rallying cry or a bullying command, the Just Do It slogan is hard to avoid in modern life.

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Isometric Designs

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Modern Mid-Century Modern

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Asymmetrical Designs

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3D Designs and Typography

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Strong Typographic Focal Points

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Colourful Minimalism

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Pops of Vivid Colours

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Realism + Flat Design

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Ecletic

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From all fabulous Absolut Vodka ads, designers often take us back to TBWA's 1980 masterpiece, a vodka bottle image with a small halo on top, and the impactful message 'ABSOLUT PERFECTION' underneath.

The ad didn't take long to become a hit, and to initiate a huge 80s/90s Absolut vodka adverts campaign that promoted the drink in a variety of creative ways.

With more than 1,500 cool Absolute Vodka advertisements launched by the beginning of the new millennium, the company obtained a dramatic increase in US sales, from only 10,000 cases by the end of 1980 to incredible 4.5 million recorded in 2000. Young adults were simply fascinated by the ads, and cut those out to make all sorts of beautiful decorations.

But the story doesn't end there: Absolut Vodka 's designers worked tirelessly to impress audiences worldwide, and 30 years later, their work still represents a role model for on pint advertising. This perfect marketing reputation doesn't come as a surprise, having in mind that one can rarely find ads that genuinely focus on visual appeal.

Absolut Vodka ads always contain the artful, charming, and chameleon-like traditional Swedish bottle, and convey the same message regardless of how the bottle is presented. Therefore, the ads are ingenuous and timeless, full of artistry and creativity, easy to understand, and focus on the brand's value.

Viewers don't find it challenging at all to interpret the message, which is why Absolut vodka advertisements won so many awards, among which being listed on America's Marketing Association Hall of Fame. The company made it there in early 1992, in line with brands such as Nike and Coca Cola. The creator of the Absolut magic was and still is the TBWA Advertising agency.

How did the Absolut vodka advertisement story begin?

In order to attach a meaning to all communication messages conveyed by the popular brand, we need to delve into the history of this product, way before it got promoted worldwide. We will be doing this mostly to understand why and how certain layers got added to the product's imagery.

Absolut is a Swedish vodka brand manufactured in Ahus (the southern area of Scania). In the early days of its development, the product was still unrefined, and it took a while for other countries and regions to appreciate the raw, yet very fine ingredients it contained: rich Swedish wheat, and pure, unprocessed water.

At the time, developer Lars Olsson Smith gave the product a Swedish name (Absolut rent bravin), which translated to English means 'Pure Vodka'. During the 1970s, production and distribution of alcohol beverages in Sweden was highly controlled by the government, which acknowledged Absolute's distillery quality soon enough to start exporting it to other countries.

The ownership company Vin & Spirit focused efforts on the American market, which even at that time covered more than 60% of the free world's vodka consumption. Nevertheless, 99% Americans at the time consumed exclusively homemade products as a more inexpensive option, considerably convinced that there is little difference from one product to the other.

According to them, the limited number of ingredients and easy manner of production made vodka pretty similar around the world, something they also agreed on for whiskey brands and Scotch. The trend at the time was also to consume vodka in combination with fruit juices and mixers, and its quality didn't really matter - the cheaper it was, the better.

The sole 1% of imported vodka in the States was still coming from Russia (Stolichnaya), a brand they started importing since 1968 as compensation for exporting Pepsi products across the Soviet Union. Due the fact that a portion was developed exclusively for the American market, Russia exported the finest of their Vodka to America, making Stoli the sole and authentic representative of consumers' picture of Russian symbolism - vodka and celebrated czars and revolutions.

Even the vodka that was produced in America often had Russian-inspired names (Smirnoff, Georgi, Romanoff, and so on). This is why it took more than two decades for Vin & Sprit to place their products on the American marketing, sending a delegation only in 1978, still unsure whether they can find a local distributor.

The reception was not exactly the friendliest one - in the States, people had hardly any interest to try Swedish vodka, especially one that doesn't have a label to promote it. As simple as that, Vin & Sprit representatives were told that their product wasn't going to sell.

It is hard to blame American consumers for that situation, given that Absolut was not taken seriously even by its producers. Photographers had no idea how to shoot and promote a product with no history - to do so, they had to envision the ideal consumer of the beverage, who was, lamentably, a young college graduate still experiencing nightlife.

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The company that accepted to launch the first Absolute campaign was TBWA, a marketing agency that was at the time involved in supporting LGBT communities, and came up with a simple ad of a bottle in front of a black background in order to promote it as a premium product.

In line with the agency's priorities, Absolut embraced openly the gay community members' as its desirable consumers in 1981, soon to launch ads across all gay media, and support a number of their events (including Tom of Finland Clothing's fall line in early 2000).

Analysis of Absolut Vodka ads

The theme product adverts

Absolut's product ads were called like this due to the fact that they showcased an actual Absolut Vodka bottle in the limelight of an otherwise pitch black setting. The most popular Absolut Product Ads are the 1960s' piercing discourse signifiers - modern and symbolic pierced bottles released to support the gay & punk subculture.

The piercing was also used to convey a non-conforming fashion statement, and as a symbol of human bodies being carved to express non-compliance with codes of conduct and societal norms. Body experiments were made visual using these ads, especially thanks to background lights that help associate the bottle to the upright body posture and body language of a person looking to share his emotions with the world.

Basically, a single ad helped thousands of people share how they feel and voice their openness to the world, and to be absolutely comfortable with themselves and how they're treating their body.

The black background emphasized in s dramatic manner how such experiments emerged, and what motivated these people to come out from the shadows that stopped them from being themselves, and to cease hiding. This depicts pretty much why people afraid to share their sexual preferences embraced these ads with so much enthusiasm.

Success is not complicated

Car companies have disrupted in many ways how a successful advertising campaign should look - each day, we see flashy and luxurious commercials that make us dream of owning an expensive vehicle, but the truth is that we forget what we saw after only a while.

What we need is an ad we can associate with, namely a simplified, every-day concept that has been effectively branded. Embracing a classic concept is a safe option for every modern marketer, as he is solving an actual problem by simply adjusting the font and the style of his image.

Even large and prominent companies are shifting towards the 'less is more' concept, doing something Absolut did 20 years ago. Everyone seems to remember the instant and iconic success of these ads in the early 80s, and want the same, effective synonyms for their brand.

Success connects cultures

Another feature that marked Absolut ad campaigns is the focus on building bridges between cultures, and creating something memorable. You can see as many as 1000 fancy and flashy commercials at a time, but with nothing there to relate to your culture and interest, you will hardly remember any of them.

Absolut invented a marketing device that is universal, and that applies perfectly to all settings, groups, and moods. This is why it is referred to as the role model of marketing efficiency that makes everyone have a piece of luxury, and feel understood and fabulous (without necessarily rolling in cash!).

Dedicated to a premium product that doesn't break the bank, an Absolute ad tells everybody's story at once, including even those who don't like vodka.

Success materializes creativity

Artwork and icons were and still are the most popular advertising means. Some companies know well how they should use them (think of Coca Cola, or Pepsi, for instance), and have given the world Mean Joe Green Coke-like commercials to talk about for years. Ever heard of Mean Joe's Coke? It is time to look it up - you will be amazed!

Younger generations, for instance, missed Joe completely, or have a blurred idea of what he meant while they were growing up. Even so, they'd enjoy watching Mean Joe now, and remind them of a number of similar commercials that utilized cool icons to sell a simple product. Well, that's where Absolut specializes - taking the marketing concept to a whole new level!

Ever since its ad campaign was first launched, Absolut recruited the best artists, comedians, actors, and musicians to make its commercials hip and recognizable. A good example is the recruitment of Zach Galifianakis, and giving him the leading role in their commercial.

Step by step, Absolut advertising took over icon recruiting, and established a cult of collecting ads among young supporters. This may not sound as a huge achievement when selling a unique product, but what Absolut sold was only vodka. Yet, it didn't stop it from imposing its marketing achievements on a whole generation of ad fanatics and web ad collectors.

Nowadays, you can even find whole fan websites and social groups for people collecting and reselling Absolute ads, and celebrating in such way the 20-years long and recognized branding campaign.

Another highlight in Absolut Vodka adverts' history happened in 2012, when the company decided to collaborate with Swedish House Mafia, an electric dance music trio that promoted the beverage in a popular video, and got over 41 million views in YouTube.

As metrics indicate, the Greyhound marketing effect of Absolut ads worked perfectly, and provided vibrant, premium, exciting, cool, and fun content for wider audiences. As the company's VP of Flobal Marketing Jonas Tåhlin once said, Absolute made a smash hit all across social media.

According to him, a commercial that doesn't reveal much about the product or the brand won't necessarily fail - instead, it will even cooler and attract more attention. Still, Absolut Vodka would probably never get where it is without being promoted in collaboration with popular artists.

For instance, it is believed that it was its appearance in New York's Studio 54 that boosted its overall sales in the US. It was also in Studio 54 where an iconic bottle captured the attention of Andy Warhol, and inspired him to create one of the most popular artworks in 1986.

This is how the story via Absolut Book goes: One night over dinner, Andy Warhol and Michel Roux met for dinner, and Warhol shared how impressed he was about Absolut's new bottle. Along, he mentioned also that he doesn't drink alcohol at all, but would still like to interpret Absolut's advertising story in his own painting, and Roux noticed even then what a great ad that was going to be.

For Absolut, this was the first time to cooperate with a popular artist, and it was then when they launched a large campaign of print ads that lasts even today. 25 years later, Absolut is conquering the interactive digital world, leaning on the legacy CopyRanter once called 'the best campaign in the history of advertising'.

Conquering the digital world, as Tåhlin points out, was an idea inspired by Red Bull media. The enormous success of this company inspired many brands to start their own media studios, and make sure their ads are original and brought to perfection.

Greyhound is, in fact, Absolut's original attempt to venture into the content marketing world, and yet stay true to the simplicity deeply embedded in its DNA. The music video, for instance, didn't say enough about the product, but people still watched it knowing it was Absolut that stood behind it. Therefore, the video got immense popularity, and Absolut Greyhound did its job - there wasn't a powerful brand message, at least no other than the one of people trying to enjoy themselves.

From then on, Absolut focused on its new, experiential strategy, namely creating an experience instead of static and dynamic commercials. For the purpose, it used its already established connection to clubs and nightlife events, and attempted to leave a memorable mark on customers while they're actually consuming the product.

Clarity: The object in this commercial was a magnifying glass that emphasized the origin and native country of the product. In a way, the company made use of a tense period between the USA and the Soviet Union, and relied on the noticeable unpopularity of the Soviet Union due to the war in Afghanistan and the lining of the Korean jetliner.

Basically, they wanted to point out that Absolut is a Swedish and not a Russian product, and managed to boost consumption even among people who were not, at the time, thinking that there was a message to decode. The phenomenon was actually sub-conscious, and filled gaps in consumers' minds without them even realising it.

It was a challenging experience for the company, as the connection between vodka and Russia was naturally established, and people wouldn't really paying that much attention to where they drink was coming from. Advertisers had to work around consumer psychology and downplay Sweden's connection to the brand, and eventually realized that the best way to do that is to highlight the origin as their primary message.

Absolut Theme objects: This is another popular category of Absolute ads where vodka bottles are made of materials different than glass. The shape and size of the object did nevertheless resemble an actual bottle, and conquered easily the attention of consumers who already had the image of an Absolut bottle established in their minds.

Absolut Tradition: In a line of memorable adverts, Absolut Vodka also made use of icons that symbolize Christmas, as for instance trees, hearths, gifts, and so on. Hearths, in particular, were often associated to warmth, safety, and family. English people use the Yule log for the purpose, and believe that it is good luck to sit on one before it was thrown to the fire.

If the fire went off immediately, it was considered bad luck. In many regions of England, people keep a piece of this log and rekindle it at their next Christmas celebration. Another way in which Absolut symbolizes Christmas is with it a bottle made of toy train, and reminding irresistibly of the epic Polar Express.

Silhouette Absolut bottles are strategically placed also on other Christmas items, resembling in such way the company's diplomatic route to depicting in detail a real Christmas celebrations. Basically, if you see an Absolut symbol embedded on a Christmas product, it indicates by default that you should bring up a bottle of vodka as part of your Christmas celebration, or at least that's how consumers perceive it.

A simple silhouette bottle tells an entire story and finds its place in both pastoral and urban settings, resembling how a true American home should look and feel on Christmas Eve.

Absolut City themes: Absolut also launched a series of city-specific adverts, such as the 2003 campaign devoted to Las Vegas. In this case, ads define and arrange cities in the shape of an original Absolut bottle, and showcase a connection between the beverage and the cities that may even change how people feel about that city (nothing in the Las Vegas commercial had something to do with casinos or the Sin City concept).

Instead, the commercials were artistic, executed with care and taste, and brought up a whole new image of the cities they exposed. The ads also established a visual and logical connection between drinking vodka and eating a meal, excluding in such way the image of vodka being the drink of alcoholics and amateurs. Of course, the connection between Absolut and Las Vegas is not an intuitive one, but you'd be able to guess right away had we told you there were shrimps, sauce and other exotic food.

Another interesting detail you can notice from Absolut commercials is the connection with spicy food. Developers tried to push in the idea of vodka being a companion for exotic and modern dishes, so that consumption was to spread on using vodka as a meal ingredient.

It was so successful, that in a popular Las Vegas restaurant run by Chef Alaya, there is a special Mandarin Soup prepared with vodka. This restaurant was originally frequented and acknowledged by a small, elite circuit of people, but has now become the favourite dining venue of most Las Vegas locals.

The marketer's endeavour is more than obvious - to bring newness in the campaign and the city at a time, and to promote the beverage both as an appetizer that goes well with seafood, but goes even better inside it. Let's not forget that vodka is not at all perceived as a dangerous drink, but subconsciously connected to water that is pure and harmless.

Absolute theme stories: The theme stories were first released in 2008, and are still the company's main armoury for promoting a common product in an uncomon way. Th story deals with an 'Absolut World', where people are not only drinking vodka, but feeling confident about themselves, and happy with who they are. This is why on such commercials we can often see body parts, tattoos, specs, and urban settings exposed, as well as contemporaty decor and lots of modern symbols.

Let's remind ourselves of a very popular example: Pushing in the idea of this being 'our world', where we can do or have anything we want, Absolute created a commercial with a woman receiving a package full of male body parts, and not being surprised by it.

What this should tell to women worldwide is that there is no such thing as a perfect man, and that they should look beyond it. Another thing that draws attention is that the body parts are mixed in terms of colour - there is a white face, white arms, and a peculiarly dark torso.

What a woman would expect from a perfect man is also to buy her roses, and be gentle to her despite of being strong and very professional. He should ideally have an inspiring hobby, such as playing the guitar, and a perfectly toned, young, and fit body with a six pack.

On top of that, the carton has a Mars Male on it to underline heterosexuality. While the woman is unpacking the body parts, there is a dog observing her, and looking both scared and confused by seeing a human body in that form.

Ending thoughts

Absolut Vodka adverts set a precedent in the marketing industry, and the proof of that is them still bearing the crown of success after 20 years. These great ad ideas withstood the test of time, and despite of the changes they were submitted to over the years, managed to preserve the original semiotic of a person and the world he lives in.

From that point, Absolut vodka ads transited to campaigns that that represent all people in the world, and that's exactly what makes them brilliant. For marketers today, Absolut is no longer branded for the American market - its reach is global, focused on a larger picture of how we all want to be, rather than embracing a particular identity.

The many-to-one phenomenon works with today's homogeneity and vast diversity, tackling common fears such as deadly viruses and terrorism threats, and uses these unifying factors to connect individuals, communities, and whole countries. to still being popular even 20 years From a completely unfamiliar product, Absolut Vodka became Absolut Vodka ad campaign is undisputedly one of the big ideas in the ad industry. In short, these ads tell us how an Absolut World should look like.

More Absolut Vodka ads to check out

If you liked this article about Absolut Vodka ads, check out these other articles as well:

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Absolut Vodka Ads: Print Advertisements to Check Out

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From all fabulous Absolut Vodka ads, designers often take us back to TBWA's 1980 masterpiece, a vodka bottle image with a small halo on top, and the impactful message 'ABSOLUT PERFECTION' underneath. The ad didn't take long to become a hit, and to initiate a huge 80s/90s Absolut vodka adverts campaign that promoted the drink in a variety of creative ways.

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During the summers of 2013 and 2014, the Coca-Cola system made a splash when we swapped our famous logo with your name, so you could Share a Coke with the people who matter to you most.

We selected the UK's most popular names and printed them on our labels, and made even more available online. It sparked a sharing frenzy across the nation and quickly became one of our most successful marketing campaigns. We were totally overwhelmed by how many people picked up our personalised bottles and cans and used them to create and share stories, selfies and special moments with us.

Share a Coke 2014 by numbers:

* Over a thousand names on our bottles
* 998 million impressions on Twitter
* 235,000 tweets from 111,000 fans using the #ShareaCoke hashtag
* More than 150 million personalised bottles sold
* Over 730,000 glass bottles personalised via the e-commerce store
* 17,000 virtual name bottles shared online across Europe
* 65 experiential stops on the Share a Coke tour

"Share a Coke is about taking our global brand and making it personal to our consumers, giving them the chance to Share a personalised Coke with friends or loved ones and creating special moments of happiness, and memories. In 2014, we were able to deliver many more moments of happiness by giving everyone the chance to share, with over 1,000 names on shelf and over 500,000 names available through the Share a Coke online store. The reaction to our campaign has been fantastic to watch and be part of." Chris Ross, Senior Brand Activation Manager

Where did the idea come from?

Marketing Director Lucie Austin and Creative Excellence Lead Jeremy Rudge - who were planning Coca-Cola 's summer campaign, came up with the idea from our offices in Sydney in 2011.

After being presented with a standout visual - a wall of Coca-Cola cans stacked horizontally, each with different names in the place of the famous Coca-Cola logo - they knew they'd found a truly shareable idea that would make headlines and capture the Australian public's attention.

Lucie said, "The campaign capitalised on the global trend of self-expression and sharing, but in an emotional way. Coke is big enough to pull off an idea like this, which speaks to the iconic nature of the brand. Who would want their name on a brand unless it was as iconic as Coke?"

Five things you didn't know about Share a Coke

1. During the planning phase, the campaign was known internally as 'Project Connect'
2. A new font called 'You', inspired by the Coca-Cola logo, was created for the names
3. Share a Coke picked up seven awards at the 2012 Cannes Lions festival
4. More than 70 countries have launched the campaign
5. The idea came from a 151-word brief

Read the full interview with Lucie and Jeremy.

How did we Share a Coke in Great Britain?

In April 2013 we released the first 150 names on bottles. We sent a select few as gifts to celebrities and then let the public discover them in-store for themselves, so they could be first to break the news on social media.

Within six months of launching, there were 330 million impressions on Twitter, with nearly 170,000 tweets from 160,000 fans. #ShareaCoke was trending and became a hot topic of conversation, which led us to release a hundred more names and even congratulate Wills and Kate on the birth of Prince George.

We also used the campaign to make our fans famous and asked them who they'd most like to share a Coke with, before revealing their messages up in lights on our famed sign in Piccadilly Circus.

We wanted everyone to have the chance to get involved so we took Share a Coke on tour so the entire nation could grab a personalised bottle. For those who couldn't clink bottles with their loved ones in person, we created a Facebook app so they could share a virtual Coke instead.

Behind the scenes of the Share a Coke factory 2014

In 2014 we brought Share a Coke back for another summer, and this time we went even bigger and replaced our logo with over 1,000 names so even more people could surprise their friends and family. We also introduced the public to Bobby the dog, who starred in our advert, and held a vote on the Coca-Cola Facebook page to find the nation's 50 most popular names to appear on our posters.

For the first time, people could personalise a glass Coca-Cola Contour Bottle with their choice of thousands of names from the Share a Coke online shop. It soon had the whole world talking when a man named Donnie used his bottles to propose to his girlfriend! Their happy announcement received more than a million likes on Facebook within 48 hours.

Share a Coke has since been launched in many markets around the world, each with their own unique and personal stories to tell. Thank you, everyone, for sharing a Coke!

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Share a Coke Names | Marketing Campaign | Coca-Cola GB

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During the summers of 2013 and 2014, the Coca-Cola system made a splash when we swapped our famous logo with your name, so you could Share a Coke with the people who matter to you most. We selected the UK's most popular names and printed them on our labels, and made even more available online.

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The $115 million in donations raised through the 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge spurred a massive increase in The ALS Association's capacity to invest in promising research, the development of assistive technologies, and increased access to care and services for people with ALS. Since 2014, we have committed more than $131 million toward our mission, including over $89 million committed specifically to worldwide research collaborations.

The ALS Association is committed to transparent and accessible reporting on the way Ice Bucket Challenge funds are allocated. Below are links and dollar commitments associated with projects and initiatives that the Association is funding with donations received through the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Along with receiving tremendous help from volunteers, we are committed to maximizing all donations from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and beyond by partnering with other organizations to fund the most promising global ALS research.

These figures will be updated periodically as new commitments are added. For questions, please contact inquiries@alsa-national.org.

For more information about our premier global research program, check out our mission toolkit here.

Click here to download a report from RTI International which documents and quantifies the outcomes of spending from the $115 million dollars in donations the Association raised through the Challenge. RTI International is an independent consulting firm that helps governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations around the world objectively analyze programs and measure impact.

To learn more about the impact of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on the Association's finances, read this blog post.

August 2014 to Present Spending

Certified Treatment Center Grants - $4,737,600.00

Recognized Treatment Center Grants - $165,000.00

Care Services Outreach Grants - $1,646,064.14

Chapter Relations and Managed Chapter Outreach - $471,575.44

Revenue Share Grants - $8,518,991.79

FDA Guidance - $677,793.21

The ALS Association Initiated Awards (2014) - $3,151,529

Clinical Management Awards (2014) - $204,145

Investigator-Initiated Awards (2014) - $2,785,000

Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards (2014) - $500,000

TREAT ALS Grant Awards (2014) - $904,359

The ALS Association-Initiated Grant Awards (2015) - $14,953,275

Biomarker Discovery Awards (2015) - $3,633,000

Clinical Management Awards (2015) - $450,000

Clinical Trial Awards (2015) - $1,193,333

Clinician Scientist Award in Partnership with the American Brain Foundation (2015) - $86,667

Drug Development Grant Awards (2015) - $4,191,124

Investigator-Initiated Awards (2015) - $5,166,630

Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards (2015) - $700,000

The ALS Association Initiated Awards (2016) - $6,099,436

Clinical Management Awards (2016) - $597,522

ALS ONE MAP Awards (2016) - $2,000,000

Assistive Technology Challenge Awards (2016) - $100,000

Clinical Trial Pilot Grant Awards (2016) - $750,000

Clinical Scientist Development Awards (2016) - $370,000

CReATe Awards (2016) - $60,000

Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Drug Development Program Awards (2016) - $2,350,340

Drug Development Grant Awards (2016) - $999,026

Drug Development Program Awards (2016) - $998,500

Investigator-Initiated Awards (2016) - $502,500

Investigator-Initiated Multi-Year Awards (2016) - $2,784,017

Investigator-Initiated Starter Awards (2016) - $475,000

Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards (2016) - $700,000

Project MinE additional funding awards (2016) - $413,817

RNS60 Biomarker Trial Award (2016) - $1,000,000

Strategic Initiatives Award (2016) - $63,180

TDP-43 Challenge Award (2016) - $499,966

ALS Assistive Technology Challenge Awards (2017) - $400,000

ALSoD Awards (2017) - $150,000

Clinical Management Awards (2017) - $392,712

Clinical Research Training Fellowship Awards (2017) - $86,667

Clinical Scientist Development Awards (2017) - $160,000

Drug Development Awards (2017) - $400,000

Investigator-Initiated Multi-Year Awards (2017) - $3,400,000

Investigator-Initiated Starter Awards (2017) - $500,000

Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards (2017) - $600,000

Neuro Collaborative additional funding awards (2017) - $3,000,000

Project MinE additional funding awards (2017) - $671,385

Strategic Initiatives Awards (2017) - $812,241

ALS Biomarker Awards (2018) - $682,518

ALS Investigator-Initiated Multi-Year Awards (2018) - $3,055,000

ALS Investigator-Initiated Starter Awards (2018) - $571,501

Clinical Management Awards (2018) - $777,477

Clinical Trial Awards (2018) - $1,744,000

Clinical Research Training Fellowship Awards (2018) - $150,000

Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Drug Development Program Awards (2018) - $4,118,996

Milton Safenowitz Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards (2018) - $500,000

Strategic Initiatives Awards (2018) - $4,150,250

Taconic Biosciences Grant Awards (2014-2018) - $414,461

NEALS Grant Awards - $3,737,594

Care Services Expenditures: Total: $7,020,239.58

2015: $1,087,500.00
2016: $1,025,100.00
2017: $1,175,000.00
2018: 1,400,000.00
2019: $50,000.00

2017: $75,000.00
2018: $90,000.00

Care Services Outreach Grants: $1,646,064.14

2015: $1,210.00
2016: $470,000.00
2017: $484,445.00
2018: $508,409.14
2019: $182,000.00

2015: $33,872.12
2016: $166,489.99
2017: $109,963.93
2018: $86,867.84
2019: $74,381.56

Chapter Services Expenditures: Total: $8,518,991.79

Revenue Share Grants: Total: $8,518,991.79

2015: $8,518,991.79

Credit Card Fees from ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Donations: Total: $2,132,504.00

2015: $2,132,504.00

Advocacy Expenditures: Total: $677,793.21

2015: $5,226.00
2016: $244,000.34
2017: $235,183.56
2018: $75,457.86
2019: $117,925.45

The ALS Association Initiated Awards (2014): $3,151,529

Dr. Hristelina Ilieva, American Brain Foundation: $86,667. Clinician Scientist Award.

Dr. Joshua Cohen, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: $750,000. Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Andrea Malaspina, Queen Mary University of London: $60,000. Going dry: empowering neurofilament-based biomarkers studies for disease monitoring in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Dr. Eliahu Heldman, Lauren Sciences LLC: $100,000. Treatment of ALS by targeted delivery of GDNF to motoneurons using novel V-SmartTM nanovesicles.
Dr. Aimee Jackson; Howard Weiner, Miragen Therapeutics, Inc.: $424,725. AntimiR-155 therapy for ALS.
Dr. John Landers; Cathleen Lutz, University of Massachusetts Medical School: $469,678. Development and characterization of novel mouse models of ALS.
Dr. Raymond Roos, The University of Chicago: $120,000. Targeting the unfolded protein response in mutant SOD1 induced ALS.
Dr. J Paul Taylor; Jinghui Zhang; Michael Benatar, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: $835,937. Whole genome sequencing of patients and families with deeply phenotyped ALS and related disorders.
Dr. Jiou Wang, Johns Hopkins University: $400,000. Targeting proteotoxicity as the common denominator in ALS.

Dr. Ettore Beghi, IRCCS Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research: $1,000,000. The effects of RNS60 on ALS biomarkers.

Dr. John Landers, University of Massachusetts Medical School: $63,180. Project MinE US - Whole Genome sequencing of a large cohort of sporadic ALS patients

Dr. Timothy Miller, Washington University in St. Louis: $499,966. ALS ACT: TDP43 pet tracer challenge.

Dr. Ammar Al Chalabi, King's College London: $150,000. The ALS Online Genetics Database, ALSoD.

Dr. Nicholas Olney, American Academy of Neurology Institute: $86,667. 2017 Clinical research training fellowship in ALS research.

Dr. Sabrina Paganoni, American Academy of Neurology Institute: $160,000. 2017 Clinician Scientist Development award in ALS research.

Dr. Sara Ackerman, University of Oregon: $100,000. Contributions of astrocyte function and dysfunction to ALS.
Dr. Meredith Corley, Regents of the University of California UCSD: $100,000. Accurate RNA structural studies of transcripts targeted by RNA binding protein hnRNP A2/B1.
Dr. Anthony Giampetruzzi, University of Massachusetts Medical School: $100,000. Identifying therapeutics for ALS using ALS-linked mutant Profilin-1.
Dr. Yue Li, Scripps Florida: $100,000. Development of RNA-templated small molecules to treat C9 ALS/FTD.
Dr. Nibha Mishra, Massachusetts General Hospital: $100,000. Identifying determinants of FUS nucleocytoplasmic localization by CRISPR/Cas9 genetic screen in ALS patient cells.
Dr. Maria Purice, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: $100,000. Linking TDP43 pathology with stress granule dynamics.

Dr. Don Cleveland, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research: $60,000. Trans-cellular transmission of misfolded TDP-43 and ALS progression.
Dr. Chad Heatwole, University of Rochester: $225,241. Development of a clinically relevant outcome measure for ALS therapeutic trials.
Dr. Adele McCormick, University of Westminster: $327,000. HERV-K molecular studies in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Dr. Markus Otto, University Hospital of Ulm: $200,000. Neurofilament assay.

Dr. Orla Hardiman, Trinity College Dublin: $200,000. A randomised controlled study of psychological intervention in ALS to address the significant and complex mental health issues facing caregivers.
Dr. Melinda Kavanaugh, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: $200,000. YCare South Africa: Building community based ALS/MND caregiver interventions.
Dr. Emily Plowman, University of Florida Gainesville: $179,850. The impact of nuedexta on bulbar physiology and function in ALS.
Dr. Anne-Marie Wills, Massachusetts General Hospital: $197,627. E-health Application To Modify ORal Energy intake and Measure Outcomes REmotely in ALS Clinical Trial (EAT MORE2 in ALS Clinical Trial).

Dr. Peter Creigh, University of Rochester (American Brain Foundation): $150,000. Telemedicine in ALS research: the utility of virtual visits and remote outcome measure collection.

NEALS Grant Awards: $467,079 + $648,694 + $2,621,821 = $3,737,594

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Learn how you can help The ALS Association advance scientific research to find a cure for ALS, provide resources for people with ALS and their loved ones, heighten awareness of the nature of the disease, and encourage government leaders to expand their support of research and patient care.

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youtube rewind rewind2013 #rewind2013 best top videos channels music of 2013

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It's time to pause, rewind and remember the videos, people and events that defined YouTube in 2018.

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Stop Drinking

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31 days alcohol-free, a break and a total reset for the body and mind with Alcohol Change UK. Sleep better and have more energy, improve your mental health and concentration, look fabulous and get brighter skin, save money and feel an amazing sense of achievement.
It's about you taking a break, living better, feeling better. Starting your new year, the right way.

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31 days alcohol-free, a break and a total reset for the body and mind with Alcohol Change UK. Sleep better and have more energy, improve your mental health and concentration, look fabulous and get brighter skin, save money and feel an amazing sense of achievement.   It's about you taking a break, living better, feeling better.

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The Pepsi Like machine - The Shorty Awards

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The Shorty Awards honor the best content creators and producers on social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat and the rest of the digital world.

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It’s never felt more important to have some fun and raise money to support people living incredibly tough lives. We need the power of funny to turn laughs into last change. So whatever you can do, please join us.

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No Shave November

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Movember | Changing the face of men’s health

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Unite to take on mental health, suicide, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

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Orange Square

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"Fyre was basically like Instagram coming to life."

Or at least, that was the idea, says DJ/producer Jillionaire in the new Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened.

The organisers spent eye-watering sums on an extravagant launch campaign with 10 of the world's top supermodels sharing gorgeous promotional pictures and videos of themselves partying in luxurious style on a sun-drenched island in the Bahamas.

Kendall Jenner was reportedly paid $250,000 (£193,000) for one single Instagram post announcing the launch of ticket sales and offering her followers a discount code.

Despite the "luxury" tickets costing thousands of dollars, the event sold out - many snapped up by social media influencers keen to document their exclusive experience, many in exchange for free accommodation.

The festival was supposed to run annually for five years.

However, just like Instagram, away from the filters and the supermodels, the reality turned out to be somewhat different.

The "private jet" in which the guests were supposed to arrive, turned out to be an old rebranded aeroplane. The luxury accommodation consisted of rain-drenched tents, and the gourmet cuisine was a cheese sandwich.

The event never took place.

The organiser, Billy McFarland, is now in prison for fraud.

Bella Hadid, one of the models who took part in the promotions, later apologised to her followers and said she had "trusted" the event would be "amazing and memorable".

Kendall Jenner deleted her post.

Two new documentaries about the luxury event that never was - one by Netflix, the other by US streamer Hulu - have thrown a spotlight on the influencers and celebrities who promoted it.

You'd be forgiven for thinking this all sounds like extremely bad news for the influencer industry. But you'd be underestimating their Teflon-like resilience in the face of adversity.

Rohan Midha, managing director of the PMYB influencer agency, says that while Fyre itself was a disaster, the marketing choices behind it were not.

"It just shows how powerful influencers can be," he told the BBC.

On the subject of Fyre, he agrees that while the sheer size of the influencer campaign was "unusual", the results were not.

"Influencers can reproduce the largest return on investment," he says. "That's across the board."

Werner Geyser, founder of the Influencer Marketing Hub, agrees. He says since the release of the documentaries his web traffic has spiked as curiosity in the industry has increased.

"If anything [the Fyre Festival documentary] was showing utilising influencer marketing was part of its success in terms of marketing the event," he says.

"It's all publicity at the end of the day. I think brand managers and influencers will be more cautious and that can only be a good thing."

Mr Geyser thinks the documentaries will emphasise the importance of regulation - the responsibility of flagging promoted content using hashtags like #ad, #spon and #sponsored.

In 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US warned celebrities and influencers that they must be clear about when a post has been paid for - but not all of them do.

"Trust is lost when you are selling something that you were paid for but didn't declare," says Mr Geyser.

"If you can say something is sponsored [the consumer] can take it with a pinch of salt."

But do they?

If you doubt the power of a stranger on social media to tell large numbers of people what to do - have a think about this.

"This month we've seen people being influenced by an egg," says Instagram consultant Danny Coy, referring to a picture of an egg which convinced more than 40m people to "like" it on Instagram.

Mr Coy, whose photography account on Instagram has 157,000 followers, is a former influencer himself.

"What's been happening for a while is the rise of the micro-influencer - people who have a much more organic following, less than 10,000, but they are really niche and targeted," he says.

"If you want to geo-locate or target certain areas, brands would rather team up with 10 micro-influencers than one big one."

The firm Neoreach offers data on influencer industry growth. According to its research and forecasts:

The number of Instagram posts using popular hashtags to denote advertising or promotion has risen from 1.1 million in 2016 to 3.1 million in 2018

They predict there will be 4.4 million officially promoted posts in 2019

The average return on investment in 2018 was $5.20 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, according to a study of 2,000 campaigns

Instagram is the most popular platform for influencer campaigns, followed by Facebook and YouTube

The influencer market size has grown from $1.7bn in 2016 to $4.6bn in 2018 and is forecast to hit $6.5bn in 2019

One expert who is not "liking" the influencer phenomenon is Dr Mariann Hardey, associate professor in marketing at Durham University.

"I would counter that the influencer industry is not successful," she says.

"It appears successful as an extension of aggressive marketing communications and PR methods, but as a standalone, self-sustaining and ethical industry it is far from successful."

Dr Hardey points out a growing backlash over some influencer-endorsed products such as weight-loss tea amid reports that it can, in some cases, be addictive and even dangerous.

"The backlash against these kinds of products is highly visible - in some cases known more than the influencers involved with the promotion," she says.

This was raised by the actress Jameela Jamil, who started the high profile "I Weigh" campaign, to counter promotional weight loss messages spread by influencers, and to encourage more positive body image.

Dr Hardey believes that influencers are not as powerful as they may consider themselves to be.

"Consumers are smart," she says.

"Overall, relying solely on influencers and the commercial viability of platforms such as Instagram [in a campaign] is precarious at best."

That lesson was learned the hard way by those involved in the Fyre Festival.

"A couple of powerful models posting an orange tile is what essentially built this entire festival," reflects Mick Purzycki, who worked on the festival, in the Netflix documentary.

"And then one kid with probably 400 followers posted a picture of cheese on toast and that trended and essentially ripped down the festival."

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"Fyre was basically like Instagram coming to life." Or at least, that was the idea, says DJ/producer Jillionaire in the new Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened. The organisers spent eye-watering sums on an extravagant launch campaign with 10 of the world's top supermodels sharing gorgeous promotional pictures and videos of themselves partying in luxurious style on a sun-drenched island in the Bahamas.

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Stop Smoking Month

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For this year's national No Smoking Day we're asking you to pick your way, #TellUsYourWay and Quit Your Way!