AirLife Denver gives a boost to battery ad
| July 13, 2009 | 5:45 PM
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Normally, I ignore TV commercials, but last Friday, during the season premiere of Eureka, one caught my attention.
It was a Duracell ad, and it mentioned two subjects that rang a bell with me: AirLife Denver and the Holly tornado.
The ad played like a scene from a disaster movie: an AirLife Denver crew in a helicopter, all wearing night-vision goggles, searching the ground for survivors in the dark.
There’s a news flash about the tornado in Holly, and the crew finds three people standing near a flattened structure. The ad ends with the crew coming back to base as dawn is breaking.
It all looks very dramatic, but I had to wonder: Was that based on a real incident? Did they use real AirLife Denver crew members or actors? Does Air Life Denver really use night-vision goggles? Or, for that matter, do they really use Duracell batteries?
So, I called around to get some answers.
“This was an actual case that we had done,” said Jana Williams, program director for AirLife Denver. “It was very exciting for us to have real crew members featured in this one. They were using all of it: our uniforms, the night-vision goggles, and helicopter.”
AirLife Denver is the emergency transport service for HealthOne hospitals in Colorado, including Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver and Swedish Medical Center in Englewood.
The Holly tornado is ranked among Colorado’s more memorable disasters. It hit just south of Holly (population 997) on March 28, 2007, and tore a 30-mile path of destruction. It killed two people, injured 11, destroyed 48 homes and damaged 114 others.
AirLife Denver was sent to Holly to transport a patient to a Denver hospital. And yes, the crew — the pilot and two flight nurses — really did use night-vision goggles.
“It’s an excellent way to showcase a most valued feature (the night-vision goggles) — it’s literally like going from absolute darkness to flipping on a light switch,” Williams said.
And yes, AirLife Denver really does use Duracell batteries in the goggles as well as in other devices.
“We really rely on Duracell for a lot of our safety equipment and patient care equipment,” Williams said. “We have a great relationship with Duracell.”
It’s part of the reason why AirLife Denver got picked not once, but twice for the battery company’s “Trusted Everywhere” campaign.
“It’s part of our research into who uses our batteries, and we look for good stories,” said Kurt Iverson, spokesman for Duracell.
Iverson said Duracell learned of AirLife Denver through contact with equipment manufacturers.
AirLife Denver was featured in another Duracell ad in 2006, in which a helicopter crew could be seen going on a mountain rescue. In that ad — filmed in the Canadian Rockies — actors played the role of the crew.
For the newest ad, the Holly tornado was picked as a scenario for a couple of reasons.
“It was an example when night-vision goggles came in handy, and it was based on reality,” Iverson said.
This time, though, Duracell decided to use actual AirLife Denver personnel. It also filmed the commercial in Colorado, using Douglas County as the rescue site and Centennial Airport as home base.
Williams said AirLife Denver is very proud of the commercial.
“It’s a great opportunity to remind people why we’re here,” she said. “We take our commitment to the community very seriously.”
Click here to watch the AirLife Denver ads.
AirLife Denver, commercial, Duracell, holly tornado
