The Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma Valley has kicked off an 8-week advertising campaign to heighten awareness of its many services.
The campaign, running in the Sonoma Valley Sun, addresses a range of Club programs — from athletics to music and arts, health and nutrition, even character-building.
The campaign’s theme – “The Boys & Girls Club Touches All Our Lives” – is meant communicate the Club’s broad reach. While much of what the Club offers benefits boys and girls directly, indirectly everyone in Sonoma stands to gain.
According to Katie Holden, the Club’s Director of Development & Marketing, “When kids have someplace to go after school, their parents don’t have to leave work to tend to them — a benefit to both parents and the local businesses who employ them. And when kids learn positive behaviors — which is what we teach in our Keystone and Torch Clubs — that results in a cleaner, safer community for all of us. Fewer at-risk kids means less crime, less vandalism. And that’s something we all benefit from.”
Each ad in the campaign employs the “hands” that make up the Club’s “handshake” logo, albeit in ways never intended by the original designer.
“The handshake logo obviously is meant to symbolize friendship, partnership, community, etcetera,” said Fred Schwartz, who created the ads and sits on the Club’s Board of Directors. “The Club still stands for that, of course. But we realized that the logo was so abstract, so stylized, it had lost its meaning. Separating the hands gave us a graphic tool to help communicate our message with more drama, humor and charm.”
The campaign was produced in association with the Sonoma Valley Sun, and the club’s new Web site at bgcsonoma.org is sponsored by Sonoma Market and Glen Ellen Village Market.
