Best Buddies International & Clear Channel Outdoor Team up to Launch Global Ambassadors Billboard Campaign across NY & NJ
Rob Lowe, Cindy Crawford, Eunice K. Shriver II, and Guy Fieri Lend Support to Creating Opportunities for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Best Buddies International has teamed up with Clear Channel Outdoor’s NY Division to help expand the nonprofit’s “Global Ambassadors” campaign. The campaign, which features public figures and celebrities, including Rob Lowe, Cindy Crawford, Eunice K. Shriver II, and Guy Fieri, aims to help bring attention to the Best Buddies mission - creating opportunities for friendship, employment, and leadership training for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
As part of the campaign launch, Clear Channel Outdoor contributed space on billboards on three major highways—the 1-495/Long Island Expressway, the Bronx River Parkway, and the Brooklyn/Queens Expressway—for a four-week period beginning Monday, April 30. Marking the campaign’s phase two expansion, 17 digital billboards appearing across New Jersey and ten digital junior posters across White Plains, New York, were unveiled for a four-week period beginning Monday, May 28, 2012.
People with IDD account for between 2-3 percent of the U.S. population; Best Buddies impacts approximately 35,000 people with and without IDD in New York State alone.
“In many ways, the Global Ambassadors campaign represents the next step in the Disability Rights Movement, given how Best Buddies teaches people with intellectual and developmental disabilities the skills needed to successfully self-advocate,” says Anthony Kennedy Shriver, Founder and Chairman of Best Buddies International. “We are very grateful to Clear Channel Outdoor for its generous support, and we’re especially excited about the Global Ambassador campaign’s use of billboards to get the word out about how people can help those with special needs.”
“Clear Channel Outdoor applauds the work being done by Mr. Shriver and Best Buddies and is thrilled to lend its support any way we can,” Harry Coghlan, General Manager, Clear Channel Outdoor, NY Division. “It is important to note that this latest campaign expands on Clear Channel Outdoor’s philanthropic commitment to Best Buddies, which is national in scope and began 10 years ago. Outdoor advertising is a powerful, flexible medium that is ideally suited to bringing attention to worthy charitable organizations such as Best Buddies.”
Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.
Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. is a global leader in the outdoor advertising industry providing clients with advertising opportunities through billboards, street furniture displays, transit displays, and other out-of-home advertising displays. It is one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies, reaching over 141 million adults each month in the United States and an additional 374 million internationally, with close to one million displays in over 40 countries across five continents, including 49 of the 50 largest markets in the United States. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. offers many types of displays across its global platform to meet the advertising needs of its customers. This includes a growing digital platform that now offers over 750 digital displays across 37 U.S. markets. Clear Channel International operates in 30 countries across Asia, Australia and Europe in a wide variety of formats and operates over 3,500 municipal advertising contracts worldwide.
About Best Buddies International
Best Buddies® is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Founded in 1989 by Anthony Kennedy Shriver, Best Buddies is a vibrant organization that has grown from one original chapter to almost 1,500 middle school, high school, and college chapters worldwide. Today, Best Buddies’ seven formal programs—Middle Schools, High Schools, Colleges, Citizens, e-Buddies® , Jobs Ambassadors—engage participants in each of the 50 states and in 50 countries, positively impacting the lives of nearly 700,000 people with and without disabilities around the world. As a result of their involvement with Best Buddies, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities secure rewarding jobs, live on their own, become inspirational leaders, and make lifelong friendships. For more information, please visit www.bestbuddies.org, facebook.com/bestbuddies or twitter.com/bestbuddies.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50297579&lang=en
For Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.
Andrew Conn, 646-805-2023
Andrew.Conn@rlmfinsbury.com
Source: Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.
Released June 5, 2012
