As a medical doctor and a business leader with the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Donald de Korte has spent his professional life helping people. But there came a moment — sometime after 8 a.m. on April 7, 1998, in fact — when he decided he wanted to do more for humanity.

It happened during breakfast with Nelson Mandela. The then-president of South Africa had invited de Korte to his home in Johannesburg after meeting him at a groundbreaking ceremony for a medical library that was being renovated through a grant from Merck.

“We were talking about the challenges of the business environment,” recalls de Korte, who was born and raised in the Netherlands. “Then [Mandela’s] two grandchildren joined us for breakfast, and he asked me, ‘Is there anything you can proudly tell your grandchildren when you’re old as I am?’ And I didn’t have an answer.”

So the venerable statesman suggested one himself: What if de Korte could use his business acumen to help relieve the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa?

De Korte, who was director of Merck & Co.’s operations in South Africa at the time, had seen firsthand the devastating effects of AIDS. Merck had been committed to discovering and developing advances in HIV/AIDS treatment and wanted to take a more proactive approach to getting those treatments to the world’s neediest patients.

So, two years after his pivotal conversation in Johannesburg, de Korte founded the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships, a collaboration involving Merck & Co., the Merck Company Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the government of Botswana. The goal was to address the AIDS crisis in Botswana, a country that at the time had the world’s highest recorded prevalence of HIV.

Heeding Mandela’s suggestion, de Korte approached the issue like a businessman. He insisted that the partnerships’ efforts be focused on results, with clear performance standards and attainable objectives.

“I use evidence and facts [to show local business leaders] that in virtually all cases, doing nothing is the most expensive choice they can make in terms of the future of their business and in terms of the cost in human lives,” de Korte says.

There have been other initiatives aimed at controlling HIV/AIDS in Africa. But many of those programs have struggled to overcome the complex cultural and social issues surrounding the problem, including ignorance of the disease and, perhaps more vexing, the stigma attached to those who suffer from it.

“At the core of the stigma is the fact that AIDS is [perceived as] equivalent to death,” de Korte says. But through the partnerships’ efforts, he notes, “that connection between AIDS and death has been removed. People can see that people with AIDS are actually getting better. They are gaining weight. They are becoming active again and starting to live normal lives. That is so powerful.”

The statistics describing the partnerships’ success are dramatic: Botswana now has the world’s highest medical treatment rate for AIDS sufferers — nearly 95 percent of the people who need treatment get it. The result has been a decline in mortality and an openness about the disease that is unprecedented in the region, de Korte says.

Today, de Korte lives with his wife and their two youngest children in Paris and serves as global leader of expanded access programs for Merck & Co., continuing the effort to get the company’s medicines to those who need them. And when his future grandchildren ask him the question that Nelson Mandela once posed to him, he will have an answer.

March on His Mind

Douglas A. Staples of the March of Dimes has seen firsthand just how important his work is

In the 21 years he’s worked for the March of Dimes, Douglas A. Staples has seen the venerable nonprofit combat birth defects, infant mortality, and, more recently, an alarming rise in premature births, an issue that Staples knows all too well. On November 16, 1999, his wife, Christopher, gave birth to Mallory, the couple’s second child. Mallory was born 24 weeks into Christopher’s pregnancy, 16 weeks early. She weighed less than two pounds, and she lived just 16 days. For Staples, her death infused his work with heightened purpose. “It definitely made it more than a job,” he says.

Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes has long been dedicated to helping women give birth to healthy babies. Yet a 2006 Gallup poll revealed a gap in the public’s understanding of the work the organization does. While nine in 10 people knew of the March of Dimes, fewer than half knew that it funded medical research and other health care services.

 “People saw us as the place that you go when you have a preemie or you have a child with a birth defect,” says Staples, 47, the senior vice president for strategic marketing and communications. “So we wanted to get the word out to moms that if you’re thinking about having a baby, or you’re pregnant, or you have a newborn, our research and our programs really benefit all moms and all babies.”

March of Dimes executives decided a rebranding was in order, and Staples was tapped to lead the effort. He and his staff at March of Dimes headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., produced TV, radio, and print ads and redesigned the Web site and logo (a new, purple-shaded emblem that Staples says is “a little friendlier, a little less corporate”). But the most dramatic result of the rebranding campaign might be the new name given to the organization’s largest annual fundraiser: WalkAmerica is now known as March for Babies.

Staples says the new name is more clearly linked to both the organization’s name and the aim of the annual walk. In 2007 WalkAmerica generated $116 million in donations, nearly half the $246 million the March of Dimes raised for the entire year. (Roughly 1,000 walks are scheduled this year, most during the last weekend in April.) “We’re trying to be more consistent in the organization’s message,” Staples says. “We want our brand to stand for babies, even though we might work on all these different kinds of issues.”

The message must be getting through. These days Staples finds himself having to remind people that the March of Dimes remains committed to fighting birth defects, infant mortality, and premature birth, which the organization considers the leading health risk for America’s newborns. “We’re not backing off our efforts to prevent premature births,” Staples says. Last year the March of Dimes persuaded Congress to authorize a Surgeon General’s Conference next month to address the growing number of preterm babies, which has climbed in the last 25 years to more than half a million annually. With conviction, Staples adds, “I always reassure people that I know how important this issue is.”

Continental is the official airline of the March of Dimes National Ambassador Program and March for Babies.

A Winning Campaign

Continental’s motto celebrates a decade of success

Advertising is no stranger to the “big idea,” a concept that strikes a chord and resonates with its target audience for a period of time. Much rarer is what might be called the “big idea with legs,” a unique concept that provides the underpinning for a successful ad campaign that keeps on going and going.

About 10 years ago, Rich Stoffer, Michael Grieco, and Jack Cardone came up with a big idea for an ad campaign for none other than Continental Airlines. At the time the men were the group account director, art director, and writer, respectively, at Kaplan Thaler Group in New York. They knew they were onto something with the “Work Hard. Fly Right.” concept. But it took some time before they realized it would become an iconic advertising campaign.

Like most great things, the campaign’s success was grounded in simplicity. “In many ways, we simply took the reality of what was happening inside Continental and just expressed it externally,” Stoffer recalls. “We didn’t have to create anything that wasn’t already there. While the tone of the campaign was a reflection of [then Continental CEO] Gordon Bethune, it represented the spirit of the entire company.”

From the start, the concept triggered some skepticism, Grieco says, due to its departure from conventional airline advertising and its heavy reliance on print. Eschewing typical airline ad imagery such as soaring jets and smiling flight attendants, the campaign relied on simple graphics and design, snappy copy delivering an honest and straightforward message, and a massive placement plan requiring flexibility, affordability, and quick turnaround.

“Much to their credit, the folks at Continental recognized the campaign as something different and ownable that spoke to customers in a new, candid, and honest tone of voice,” says Grieco, who, along with Cardone, is now a creative director with Kaplan Thaler. “And it didn’t hurt that the stuff was funny — smart funny.”

All the ads followed the same format: A pithy, often witty comment in large type dominating the top of the ad, brief copy in smaller type in the middle, the Continental globe logo in the lower left, and the “Work Hard. Fly Right.” tagline in the lower right.

The lead copy in different versions of the ad often tied in to specific issues, like “You’re a Professional. Fly Like One.” (noting the selection of Continental as Airline of the Year by Official Airline Guide [OAG] readers), and “Other Airlines Are All Over the Map. We’re All Over the Globe.” (a reminder that Continental serves the most international destinations of any U.S. airline). Other messages reinforced core brand attributes — “Our Priorities Are Simple. They’re Yours,” for example.

“The fear was that after a couple of years, the cleverness of the writing would diminish, and the ideas would get weaker,” Stoffer says. Hundreds of ads later, not only has that fear proved unfounded, but the concept has even been translated into other languages and cultures without losing its zing.

While the campaign remains tightly defined in terms of graphic look and design, it’s incredibly flexible for local markets, Stoffer says. “Those outside the United States are free to deliver the most relevant and compelling message for their market.”

Kaplan Thaler touts what it calls its “big bang” approach to developing ideas, which often requires something disruptive to the category to make unknown brands famous and turn famous brands into icons. “We’re about creating advertising that gets talked about and becomes part of the culture,” Grieco says. “The campaign we created for Continental Airlines certainly is everything the Kaplan Thaler Group is all about.”

Such Great Heights

He may be only 28, but Lin-Manuel Miranda has already achieved his dream of Broadway success

If it’s true there’s no place like home, then few people have learned that lesson better than Lin-Manuel Miranda. When writing his first musical, Miranda looked for inspiration in the Linwood neighborhood of Manhattan, where he grew up, and today his In the Heights is one of the most critically acclaimed shows on Broadway, not to mention an odds-on favorite to collect a few Tony Awards when the trophies are handed out next month.

Impressively, In the Heights began life when Miranda was just a sophomore at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Conn. Feeling homesick, he decided to channel his emotions into something creative: “I tried to write the kind of show I had always wanted to see and wanted to be in,” says Miranda, 28. “I knew I wanted a life in musical theater, but I also knew that I couldn’t play Paul from A Chorus Line or Bernardo from West Side Story forever. So I started writing this show with contemporary music that sounded like my neighborhood.”

The show currently playing at the Richard Rodgers Theatre differs a bit from that first incarnation, but it remains a Latin-flavored love letter to Miranda’s hood. The action centers on Usnavi (played by Miranda), a Dominican bodega owner who interacts with three generations of characters, including a young girl who disappoints her parents by dropping out of Stanford, and a grandmother who wins $96,000 after buying a lottery ticket. A score of salsa, hip-hop, rap, and merengue helps to illustrate and illuminate the hopes and dreams of a community on the brink of change.

For Miranda, writing and starring in a Broadway show has been nothing short of a dream come true. A self-described theater nerd, he grew up listening to his parents’ original cast recordings of Man of La Mancha, Camelot, and Fiddler on the Roof. As a student at prestigious Hunter College High School, he was actively involved in student productions. And, of course, his family often made the trek downtown to see Broadway shows. “I remember seeing Phantom of the Opera when I was in the sixth grade and realizing, ‘Oh my God, this is a show about a guy who writes songs because he can’t get girls. I can relate to that!’” he recalls. “That show knocked me on my ass.”

Today, Miranda and his show are provoking a similar reaction from theatergoers and critics. The New York Times called him a “brightly glowing star,” and during its initial off-Broadway run, New York magazine named In the Heights the Best New Musical of 2007. Industry watchers are hopeful that the show, along with this season’s Passing Strange and last year’s Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Spring Awakening, will help bring new, younger, and more diverse audiences to Broadway and fill the void left when Rent closes next month.

Miranda says he can’t worry about such things. In fact, despite the buzz, his only concern is performing eight shows a week — not the Tonys or other season-ending awards that may be coming his way. “If I start thinking about all that, I’m doomed,” he says. “A Tony Award is another dream for another day. Right now I’m taking it one dream at a time.”

Continental is the official airline of Live Broadway and the League of American Theatres and Producers.

The Art of Texas

Looking for the treasures in towns large and small

On a recent brisk evening in Houston, a hundred or so black-clad art patrons, champagne in hand, pondered a dozen 3-by-5-foot photographs of China, each image offering silent political commentary from its spot on the gallery wall. A buzz of voices filled the room as the visitors shared their interpretations, observations, and gossip in German, Dutch, French, Italian, and English.

The exhibit was a part of FotoFest, a biennial celebration of photography that, over its 25-year history, has grown from a good idea into an international fair that attracts thousands of participants, exhibitors, and patrons to Houston from around the globe.

“It seems only natural that this expanding creative scene makes its home in some of our growing cities, such as Austin, Houston, and Dallas,” reflects Texas Governor Rick Perry. “With a capital city known as the Live Music Capital of the World, it’s no wonder that famed musicians, actors, and artists have found a home in our great state.”

Over the years, well-traveled Texans have accumulated a passion for contemporary art and brought it back home. A few have donated their renowned collections to create new museums; others have helped established institutions build significant galleries and attract important directors and work. Worldwide media darlings that are recognized for their exhibits as well as their architecture include the Menil Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, both in Houston, and Artpace in San Antonio. But Governor Perry notes that visitors who venture beyond the big cities, to the unique art scenes in small towns like Marfa, are in for a treat.

Texas Governor
Rick Perry

Marfa may once have been only a speck on the high plains of west Texas — an isolated grid of rough streets and old adobe buildings where the movie Giant was filmed in the 1950s. But the town has been transformed into a holy grail for pilgrims yearning to absorb the minimalist installations of the late artist Donald Judd, showcased by the internationally acclaimed Chinati Foundation.

Similarly, other art jewels around the state are producing major events, curating significant installations, and playing exclusive host to high-profile touring exhibits. The Art Car Parade, Orange Show, and Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston; Austin’s annual South by Southwest music festival; and the Old Jail Art Center in Albany attract out-of-state visitors by the thousands each year.

Governor Perry sums it up best: “Texas is home to a wide range of art and offers enthusiasts an opportunity to see exhibits as varied as Texas itself.”