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A Real Cowboy, A TV Doctor and Caring for Horses
NY agency hires POV-Rose to produce national spots in L.A.
When James Pickens, Jr. lost his roping horse, “Smokey”, to disease it was devastating and brought home the importance of having all his horses seen by a veterinarian twice a year. Now, Pickens has joined with the American Quarter Horse Association and Fort Dodge Animal Health in a national public awareness campaign called “Keeping Horses Healthy.”
Pickens, star of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and an AQHA member, lends his celebrity power to the campaign’s television and radio public service announcements. An American Quarter Horse owner and competitive roper,
Pickens’ love of horses led him to help educate other owners on the importance of twice-a-year wellness exams from a veterinarian.
Creating Awareness of Danger
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, nearly half of the country’s 9.2 million horses won’t see a veterinarian this year. The PSA campaign is designed to let the nation’s horse owners know about the health dangers their horses face from deadly mosquito-borne and respiratory diseases, to joint health and nutrition issues, as well as injuries and infections.
To produce the PSA campaign, Fort Dodge Health turned to its agency, Latorra, Paul & McCann Advertising. Lou Latorra, a principal of the Syracuse-based agency, and Doug Potter, creative director, engaged POV-Rose Films’ Jeff Mead to direct and shoot the spots in Los Angeles.
“Jeff has directed and shot several national PSA packages for the agency over the past few years, including the Equine Emergencies PSA package LPM produced for our Fort Dodge Health client,” says Potter. “He understands how to work with horses, horse owners and us.” Potter notes that “Jeff and POV-Rose have a proven track record of delivering work of exceptional quality and value for our clients.”
“Client Couldn’t Be Happier”
Working with Mead and a local L.A. Crew, and having access back home to pre-and post-production with POV-Rose is cited by Potter as allowing agency personnel to be fully involved without spending time and money being in L.A. for extended periods. “We save our client money while delivering the level of quality we both expect. The client couldn’t be happier with the results.”
For his part, Mead says, “Working with Doug and James Pickens was of course great. Both are true professionals as you’d expect and James’ genuine love of horses was evident both off and on camera. He was down-to-earth, genuine, personable, and extremely professional and directable.”
The PSAs include three television and three radio spots that are :60, :30, and :15 seconds long. The PSA campaign is designed to let horse owners nationwide know about the health dangers their horses face. The PSAs are running on 825 television stations, 500 cable stations, 3,720 radio stations across the US.
“James’ ability to connect on-camera and adding the force of his passion to our client’s message took the spots to a higher level.” Doug Potter, LPM Creative Director