I must admit I am pretty excited about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution starting on March 26. The first place Jamie visits is Huntington, West Virginia—which has been called the unhealthiest city in America. You can also watch a sneak preview of the “Flash Mob” scene on Hulu. Looks like it was a smart move to choose a location with a university.

The show attempts to tackle some of the causes of obesity around the country - poor school lunch nutrition, fast food, and people hating lettuce. I like these show that go in to a community and use the spectacle of television to offer some tangible benefit. One of the locations featured in the premiere, a community center called Huntington’s Kitchen, is competed renovated thanks to the series.

Nurse recruitment is an important activity of hospitals around the country. The nursing shortage is going to increase over the next decade. Video can be effective for piquing the interest of potential nurse candidates in a specific hospital. The trick as always is getting your video in front of the audience you are seeking. Here are a few nursing videos from the web and TV. I like the first one because it is recorded at a nursing recruitment event. It’s not a polished commercial but it feels very honest.

I like the Veteran Affairs commercial mostly because it has a beautiful wide angle lens image. It features “nurse” stepping out of the frame to address the audience. The next video as a “real” nurse which is generally more attractive to actual nurses, because they have a lot of pride in their profession. Nurses don’t like other people pretending to be nurses.

South Dakota Health Careers has a longer video that combines abstract drumming images and statistics with mini-interviews of nurses. Nice because it give a variety of perspectives from young to old. The next video from Humboldt State University is a similar concept but a little rougher. The one after that from Saint Francis Medical Center tries to do the same in 30 seconds.

This last commercial is made by Johnson & Johnson for the Campaign for Nursing’s Future. They produced many commercials like this you can see on their YouTube.

Here’s another quick selection of videos from groups doing work in Haiti. The above video is for Forward In Health (video produced by us at c.2K) which is a group building a permanent medical clinic in Haiti. They’ve been down to Haiti twice since the earthquake.

The next two videos are “Thank You” videos for donations to Gwinnett Medical Center Associates and StillerStrong. There is also a video from Johnson & Johnson that I want to share but they have disabled embedding. It explains how they are working with partners (AmeriCares and MAP International) to distribute medical supplies. Watch it here. I also included a video from Dayton Children’s Hospital of a boy from Haiti and his new adopted fathers. They spent a day at the hospital after arriving to the US. Finally, there is “headstand for haiti” an ambitious YouTube campaign by one student to raise $25K for Haiti!

Animating text over some poignant voice over has been a pretty powerful video device over the past few years. The above video from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundations’ Pioneer project is a recent example.

Right now, we’re working on a commercial using animated text and motion graphics for one of our clients. As always, I like to see what else is out there. Here are a few motion graphic videos used by nonprofits and hospitals. You can see the they can be simple or complex or elegant or hilarious. Even when the animations are simple, finding a great animator is everything, because they can translate your ideas into a style that communicates effortlessly.

Let me know if you have examples.

Breast Cancer Walk Promo - combined video with animation

Here’s one for fun…

IgniteBLOG posted last month about Lilly Oncology’s Oncology on Canvas program invites people to use artistic expression to share their experience with cancer. It is a beautiful idea. If you have art to share, you can enter their competition until June. The videos on their YouTube channel are neat, but not getting too many hits.

You can see the touring exhibition in your city. Check out their schedule.

Related to this, I heard a story on WBEZ the other day about an artist who painted the breasts of women who have been affected by cancer. Her exhibit, called The Living Breast Artist Series , is currently on display at Flourish Studios in Chicago.

Just in time for the Oscars this weekend, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles is hosting The Toxies today at 11AM at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The mock awards ceremony will feature “bad actors” like Bisphenol-A, phtalates, perchlorate, and other offending chemicals. The event is also sponsored by Californians for a Healthy & Green Economy, which is “a growing coalition of environmental health, policy, labor, environmental justice, interfaith, and other organizations who are working to create a better system for regulating toxic chemicals in California.” Read the press release here.

They will be creating a video of the awards, and I’ll post it here once they put it online.

The Haiti-related health care videos continue from groups that have raised money and sent personnel to help with the devastating aftermath. The above video from Sutter Health (hospital system based in Northern California) shows how the health system works with MedShare to distribute surplus medical supplies. This video also includes reactions of volunteer medical staff. Sutter didn’t have a video crew with them in Haiti, so they are using dramatic still photographs to supplement the video interviews.

The next video, from UCLA Health System, has a high adorable quotient. Pediatric patients at UCLA gathered to give their hand-made valentines to the medical staff to take to children in Haiti. The video does great job of capturing the preparation of Operation Haiti, in which some members of the UCLA staff will be working with the US Navy on a floating hospital. The intend to send teams for as long as the military can use their skills in Haiti.

The next video from Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago captures the reaction of a nurse after she travelled to Haiti on a medical trip with Little By Little Haiti. She talks about her experience has medical professional and as a human being.

This video of University of Iowa Hosptals and Clincs’ Dr. Chris Buresh talks about his experience working in Haiti. His experience is a bit different because he had been going to Haiti since 2003. This video is great because Dr. Buresh took a video camera with him to capture some of the experience.

I really love this video from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The video is taken by a doctor traveling with a medical team by boat to a remote location on the Haitian coast. The video also shows a bit of the clinic and pharmacy they set up temporarily with long lines from the local population.

And, in case you haven’t seen it yet,…

The UN Global Creative Forum happens today at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Even though my office is right around the corner, I won’t be able to attend. Too bad, because the line up of speakers is amazing. Here are a few:

• Neal Baer - former executive producer and showrunner for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Eric Falt from the UN Creative Community Outreach Initiative
• Terry George - Writer and Director of Hotel Rawanda
• Dr Margaret Chan - Director General of the WHO
• Helene Gayle - CEO and President of CARE USA
• and…
• Stevie Wonder - UN Messenger of Peace

Many hospitals produce “Medical Minute” videos they share on their websites or via broadcast. Here are a few examples produced by nonprofits, hospitals, and agencies. The mostly have the feel of a video news release which can be integrated into local news broadcasts. I think these all serve a purpose, but if you have any examples of more creative “Medical Minute” styles, I’d love to know about them.

The YouTube Nonprofit Video Awards contest was just launched by YouTube and See3 Communications in Chicago. The deadline for entry is March 19.

Prizes include:

• Your video featured on YouTube homepage
• $10K in grants from Case Foundation
• Flip video cameras
• Nonprofit Technology Conference 2011 Registration
• Screening in DC

Entrants must:

1. Be a nonprofit organizations registered in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia.
2. Be a member of YouTube Nonprofit Program
3. Have YouTube channel

Here is a playlist of last year’s finalists…