Rotary has masterminded perhaps the largest polio awareness initiative of all-time. It just broke the Guinness World Record, and there’s still time to be part of it.
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It started with a grand mission and with a bold name: The World’s Biggest Commercial.
Of course, back in 2012, Rotary didn’t have a clue if it truly would become the world’s biggest commercial, but they figured it’d never happen if they didn’t at least set the bar there.
And now more than two years later, just as it neared the 100,000-participant threshold, The World’s Biggest Commercial received Guinness World Record recognition as Largest Photo Awareness Campaign. Guinness looked specifically at the celebrity contingent of campaign supporters, confirming that Rotary had enlisted 177 celebrity participants, more than three times the number of the previous record holder.
Rotary’s Polio Eradication Ambassadors include philanthropist Bill Gates; actors Jackie Chan and Archie Panjabi; golf great Jack Nicklaus; Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu; Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan; and music stars Ziggy Marley; Angelique Kidjo, and Psy. In a series of print and video spots, each ambassador (see photo below of Jackie Chan) makes the “this close” gesture with thumb and forefinger to illustrate the tagline:
“We are ‘ThisClose’ to ending polio.”
With your help, polio could be the second human disease to be wiped off the face off the earth.
Here are the step-by-step directions for how to be part of history:
(1) Visit EndPolioNow.org
(2) Go to “The World’s Biggest Commercial,” and then “Add Your Photo.”
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–Photo: gatesfoundation/Flickr