Urban Advertising Leads New York Creatives, Kathleen Turner to Disrupt With “Silence” for Citymeals-on-Wheels

When New York’s Urban Advertising set out to create a television spot for Citymeals-on-Wheels, they decided that experiencing the isolation and loneliness that many homebound elderly face spoke the loudest.

“When you’re constantly being hit with hip hop thumping commercials and Donald Trump barking catch-phrases, there is nothing quite as disruptive as silence” said writer Jeff Lang, who conceived the spot along with art director Ellen Dedman. “Our goal was to disturb viewers a little bit, in a way they’re not immune to” said Dedman. With that in mind they took a minimalist approach that captures a few moments in the day of an elderly woman.

“The spot is only 30 seconds long but it feels endless, which is precisely the aspect of these people’s lives that we wanted to capture” said Mitchell Goldman of Finally Famous Films, who directed the spot.

The silence is broken by the distinctive voice of actress Kathleen Turner, who is a member of the Citymeals-on-Wheels board, saying “There are 86,400 seconds in her day. These are only 30 of them.”

“Having Kathleen Turner’s voice adds another layer of depth and urgency to the spot”, said Urban Advertising president Bernard Urban. “Not only did she do an incredible job, but she also waived her fee, which is what makes PSA’s like this possible. She was amazing, actually the whole team that made this happen was amazing. Everyone donated their time and talent, the producers Sherri Hollander and Hillary Cutter, the sound people at Tonic, editor Rich Rosenbaum at Convergence, they were all moved by the cause and wanted to help out.”

CityMeals is currently negotiating with local outlets for airtime and also investigating the option of having the spot shown in movie theaters. The spot can currently be viewed at: www.urbanadvertising.com/silence