"Forgot Your Password" Campaign Helps Netizens Remember the Alzheimer's Association

I do not wish to offend . . . this time. Someone near and dear to me passed away due to complications from Alzheimer's disease. And I am notorious for forgetting my passwords. (Who just said, "Why did he remember the one to the blog program?")

However, I must ask: It's OK to laugh at an Alzheimer's awareness campaign called "Forgot Your Password," right? I mean, that's the point, and . . . Hello? Is anyone in this echo chamber?

Delivery of the messages that connect the frustration of memory loss due to Alzheimer's with the more-common frustration of forgetting a password is even more clever. When users of the Spanish-language Univision.com forget their passwords and seek new ones, they receive new passwords along with a message.

If something as insignificant as forgetting your password complicates your life, imagine what it's like living with Alzheimer's.

Only in Spanish. Also included is a link to the Alzheimer's Association website to learn more (www.alz.org/socal).

The campaign is the brainchild of Grupo Gallegos, a Huntington Beach advertising agency that collaborated with Univision Interactive Media and the Alzheimer's Association. It's won awards from El Sol, the Clios and the Webby Awards, among many others.

Better than that, it's said to have increased traffic to the Alzheimer's Association website by 400 percent during November, which is Alzheimer's Awareness Month.

"Grupo Gallegos brilliantly tied life's little annoyances into a very thought-provoking campaign packed with truth," says Alzheimer's Association spokeswoman Jean Dickinson in a statement. "It's an original and to-the-point approach to Alzheimer's disease and we applaud their efforts to raise awareness of the disease and of the Alzheimer's Association as a leader in the fight."

Perhaps the follow-up will help me find my car keys.

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