Alzheimer's Association Launches Champions Campaign

The Alzheimer’s Association has kicked off its Champions Consumer Campaign, the first national effort to dispel public misperceptions and move people to take action in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. The goal is to enlist 5 million Champions—at least one for each person living with Alzheimer’s in the United States.

The new campaign features a diverse and committed group of stars sharing personal stories and lending their faces to a motivating portrait exhibit as Champions for Alzheimer’s disease. David Hyde Pierce, Dick Van Dyke, Vivica A. Fox, Olympia Dukakis, Peter Gallagher, Victor Garber, Ricki Lake and Lea Thompson, among others, are urging Americans to learn about the disease and get involved in fighting it.

In addition, national magazines are running provocative print ads depicting an image that represents the struggle someone with the disease—and their loved ones—experiences as the disease progresses. (See one example at right.) The ads aim to overcome perceptions that the disease is just about old people becoming forgetful, as research shows that this misperception fuels complacency. The copy decisively asks Americans to stand up and represent people who suffer from Alzheimer’s by using key words—Voice, Move and Open—that invite a certain action.

To find out more about what you can do to help further the cause, visit the Association’s new campaign Web site, www.actionalz.org.