Month: December 2009

Ad 2 Orlando’s Public Service committee took a trip recently to visit our 2009-2010 beneficiary, the Center for Great Apes, a permanent sanctuary that provides a safe environment for orangutans and chimanzees in Wauchula, Florida. The trip was, for lack of better words… amazing. We met with the director, Patti Ragan, who is incredibly passionate about this initiative.  The sanctuary is not open to the public (we were told that a group tour of the sanctuary was worth a couple thousand dollars) however, we got a private tour, all feeling incredibly honored to be there.

Patti took us around the sanctuary to see all of the 40+ apes. We were amazed by the huge environments they are housed in (see photo below). As we went by each habitat, Patti told each of their heart-wrenching stories. We found out that most of these primates had been through so much pain and torture before being saved by Patti and her team. A couple of them MAY even make a cameo in some of our creative work… hint, hint

Overall, it was an experience our team will never forget. We left the sanctuary (6 hours later) feeling nothing short of inspired. We can’t wait to share our campaign with everyone as soon as it is ready. Stay tuned!

Tip of the day: Don’t call them monkeys! Monkeys have tails and apes do not.

– Susan Watts, Media Planner/Buyer, Push.

When I heard about the Ugly Sweater social for Ad 2 I thought – what a fun idea.  We all get to dress and look ridiculous and it’s totally okay – and it’s not even Halloween!  The date I was bringing, a girl of course,  loaned me a sweater that was, admittedly, very ugly.  She was wearing a red wool coat that actually looked pretty good on her.  I told her she looked like she was going to a nice Christmas party, not an Ugly Sweater social.  I suggested we trade, so she could have a truly ugly sweater and I could sort of cross dress and look silly.  Well as ugly as cross dressing can be, I was definitely in the spirit of the social.  I didn’t intend on
being competitive in the contest, but once we realized the genius in my costume we started lobbying and charming the other people at the social for bows (they are like your score – more bows = win).  I thought I had it won, but another competitor who had won second last year came prepared to win this time.  Still, getting second place on a last minute idea was pretty fun.  The people I got to meet at the social were all really cool and nice, and what a great time!  I’ll definitely be there
next year again, with my own ugly sweater.  Hopefully the tradition of second place winning the next year stays true.

Cliff Steinhauer, Account Representative, Progressive Communications

It was the Ad 2 National Mid-Year Retreat. Not only would this be my first-ever national conference, but my first time in San Diego! I was traveling with 4 other Ad 2 Orlando BODs: Will Royall, Kristen Zucks, Lindsey Levy and Ashton Dunn, who was on the same departing flight, Nashville-bound for a Jay Z concert. Overall, a damn good crew, I’d say.

We arrived in California late afternoon with one thing on our minds… The San Diego Zoo.