Kelly Clarkson will be celebrating caregivers as part of NBCUniversal’s new “Health Is Universal: The Caregiver Initiative,” which kicks off Monday as part of National Family Caregivers Month.
NBCU is collaborating with the Mayo Clinic, which is sponsoring the initiative, to provide information to help caregivers take care of themselves as well as family members.
On her show, Clarkson will have caregivers in her audience, tell some of their stories and give them gift baskets. Other NBCU talent will also create video messages thanking caregivers.
NBC News Brand Studio worked with Mayo Clinic to create The Caregivers Resource Guide, which will be available on a new channel on NBCNews.com.
The initiative follows up on the Family Is Universal initiative, NBCU’s initial effort to use its platform for good purposes. Response was positive from consumers and advertisers, Mark Marshall, president of ad sales and partnerships at NBCU told Broadcasting+Cable.
“It has always been a priority for NBCUniversal to use our platform for good, lead with purpose and give back to those communities who serve across the country and world. During National Family Caregivers Month, we are shining a spotlight on the selfless individuals who have given their time to give to others.”
Marshall notes that many advertisers are looking for good causes they can be a part of and include in some of their messages. “Their employees are demanding it from them to know what their company stands for,” he said. Marshall expects Health Is Universal to be durable and that advertisers will want to sign on in the future.
“National Family Caregivers Month doesn’t have a ton of awareness around it at this point,” said Megan Ryan, VP of client strategy at NBCU. “However, the caregiver community is huge, with 1 in 5 Americans considering themselves unpaid caregivers according to an AARP 2020 Family Caregiver Study. That is 53 million Americans and following COVID, this number is expected to grow dramatically.”
“Caregivers are really the backbone of our society,” Ryan said. “We thought this would be a tremendous time to harness the power of our platform to ignite that movement and bring caregiving into the cultural conversation.”
The initiative has three key goals, she said. The first is to acknowledge and celebrate these caregivers. The second is to support and honor them. As part of that effort, NBCU has created lapel pins that will be worn on air by NBCU talent during the month. The third is to help caregivers connect and share. Part of that effort is messages from NBCU figures that will shine a light on what caregivers do.
Clarkson will be playing a role in that effort, giving caregivers a shout out throughout November for their selfless work. ”It‘s something Kelly was very much interested in and it‘s close to her, too,“ Ryan said.
