Guest Blogger Kat Gordon: Why I Support Embrace
Posted by christina
As an advertising creative director, I spend lots of time listening to clients drone on and on about things people don’t care about. In fact, 90% of my work is in helping them whittle down pages of marketing-ese into one thing that might actually benefit someone, somewhere.
Imagine my surprise the first time I learned about Embrace. A company answering a need that causes 450 babies to die every hour? A group of founders so impassioned they are leaving their families – and potential six-figure jobs – to live in India? A solution that took brilliant high-tech minds to make it low-tech enough to succeed in the developing world? An advancement that – while reducing infant mortality – actually is expected to help the world’s population problem?
Well, how could I ever turn my back on an opportunity to be part of something like this? I couldn’t. The week after I first met Jane Chen, I found myself mentally calculating the cost of a world without low-cost incubators. Leaving my exercise class: 450 babies dead. After a movie: 1000 babies dead. Up from a night of sleep: 4,320 babies dead.
As a mother, this was devastating to ponder. And it lit a fire under me to help Embrace however I could.
I recently served as a guest speaker at an 8th grade creative writing class studying advertising copywriting. At the end of our time together, I told the students this:
"Sometimes I envy my brother and his wife who are scientists, looking for cures for things like Alzheimer’s Disease. But if you are persuasive with words, you can have just as big an impact on the betterment of the world as anyone. You can inspire others to get involved, to give money or to volunteer."
I believe this. In fact, I believe we all have unique gifts that can change that world. What is yours? Whatever it is, I can think of no better place to give it right now, in this world, than to Embrace.
-Kat Gordon, Creative Director & Founder, Maternal Instinct