Campaign of The Week: One Powerful Place
Hear Jon Stewart narrate a short film for autism research center
The center for autism education and research celebrates its 50th year with new platform from Colossus.
Over the past 50 years, the New England Center for Children (NECC) has embarked on groundbreaking research and led the way for training in the autism field. In order to celebrate its five-decade anniversary, the center debuted an inspiring and informative film narrated by comedian, late night host and autism activist Jon Stewart. “One Powerful Place” was produced in collaboration with independent agency Colossus and tells the story of NECC in a way only Stewart can. That includes a tone of both irreverence and respect over shots of downtown Boston cultural and educational institutions as it travels down the Massachusetts Turnpike west until it lands on Southborough. The suburb is home to NECC, a hybrid special education school, global nonprofit and research and training institute.
In his voiceover, Stewart notes that history has never been kind to kids living with autism, but through its work over the years, NECC has helped change that narrative. How the organization has accomplished this is with its focus on research as well as treating and educating kids living with autism. NECC has also stepped up to battle insurance companies, advocate for changes in health legislation, trained teachers and families on best practices and developed a shared curriculum that has been sent to specialists all over the world.
In addition to its presence in Massachusetts, NECC has a campus in Abu Dhabi, along with public school partnerships across New England. It also delivers its curriculum to partners in 23 states and nine countries.The film debuted at NECC’s 50th anniversary gala on November 15 and lives on a dedicated website, onepowerfulplace.com. To extend the campaign, the video will run across online video, social, print and event channels moving forward.
Greg Almeida, executive creative director at Colossus, said one of the goals its client sought to achieve was becoming the “Jimmy Fund of autism.” Though NECC has hosted fundraising galas for a number of years, the organization had never undertaken a campaign effort of this stature, though they were pleased with what Colossus accomplished. In a succinct observation, NECC’s vp and chief development and strategy officer Jared Bouzan said Colossus “nailed it.”
“[This film] gives people the opportunity to see what happens here day-to-day in a way that we have never done,” he observes. “This short film allows us to take a minute and celebrate how the accomplishments of our students and team have changed the world for the better.”
Getting Stewart for the gig
So how did they land Jon Stewart for this? Turns out, The Daily Show host was available and willing to narrate the film based on a prior connection with an NECC family. Stewart is also a board member of Next for Autism and has hosted the “Night of Too Many Stars” comedy event benefiting autism awareness multiple times since its inception. Bouzan notes that his longstanding dedication to the space and speaking voice were ideal for the copy Colossus provided.
“They wrote it in a way that suited the way Jon talks, and so it came out perfectly,” Bouzan says. “He did that from the kindness of his heart, and it means a lot to us that he did.”
Almeida adds that the point of the film is to humanize autism and talk about a subject that sometimes makes people uncomfortable.
“Our approach was to try and make it approachable, to have a conversational tone, to offer a touch of humor and show people reaping the benefits of the school,” Almeida says. “That’s why having someone like Stewart was so important, because he has this amazing way of talking about heavy things with a lightness.”
Overcoming disinformation
The release of the film comes amid a contentious time for conversation and consideration of autism in America. The condition has been a hot button issue over the last few years, driven by a polarizing rise in disinformation and misinformation around autism. This includes the recent promotion of a baseless claim that vaccines cause autism by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While the NECC doesn’t necessarily want to wade into that discussion, it instead remains focused on its ongoing mission to create a global network of educators, researchers and programs so that those living with autism may live fuller lives.
“We’re a science-based research organization at heart, and we don’t research how children get autism,” says Bouzan. “We work with children who are diagnosed and and we are trying to study early markers to try to identify children as young as infants on the autism spectrum.”
Bouzan adds that there are a lot of distractions with autism information, but NECC believes in the efficacy of its scientific approach of applied behavior analysis therapy for the population it serves – which is mostly children with profound autism.
The One Powerful Place website also introduced a multi-year platform that Colossus will continue to build with new work going forward. There will be continued digital activations around the film so more people can view it as NECC and Colossus keep expanding and growing the platform.