2007 Super Bowl Ad: American Heart Association's Gotta Have Heart

The American Heart Association has certainly made great efforts and spent lots of money to educate the public on the important issue of heart health. It has outdone itself with the Gotta Have Heart commercial during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

This ad begins with a man walking down the street dressed in a costume the shape of a giant heart, who obviously represents the human heart. As the song "Gotta Have Heart" plays in the background, we see mean-looking characters dressed in black descend upon the unsuspecting man. Each character has a name on its back: "High Blood Pressure" and "Diabetes" come from nowhere, surprising him. "Overweight" is driving a dark van and quickly pulls up to the curb where "High Cholesterol" picks up the man and throws him in the back.

They drive him to a deserted alley and get him out of the van, where the attack begins. They are all roughing him up pretty good. The little heart man is no match for the strength and number of his attackers. They deliver one final blow, throwing him up against a wall. His impact on the wall leaves a heart impression on it, underneath reads "BeatYourRisk.com."
This is the reference to the American Heart Association's new campaign, Beat Your Risk, which is cleverly placed throughout the ad. The voice-over asks, "Is your heart at risk for an attack?" It then advises viewers to go to the aforementioned website to see how high blood pressure and other factors put the heart at risk.

The whole scene of evil villains committing an assault on this "heart" is very well played out. It's obvious that a lot of creativity went into the production of this commercial. The ad itself and the promotion of the new "Beat Your Risk" ad campaign is an example of a brilliantly executed plan: from idea, to paper, to finished product.
There was likely a large flow of traffic to beatyourrisk.com, and the goal achieved of further educating Americans on the risks of heart disease and how to avoid them.

This ad: www.ifilm.com/video/2819656/collection/18373/minisite/superbowl earns a spot as one of the best and creative from 2007.