AmEx Uses Member Successes to Ignite Future Ones

American Express has this program called Members Project, which funds worthy ventures with $2.5 million. (Members vote to decide who gets the money.) Read all about it.

To promote the program, AmEx used footage from previous ads to produce a montage of famous cardholders like John Cleese, Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, Ellen Degeneres and Jim Henson.

Their achievements are presented as the fruit of childlike desires. Scorsese's "project," for example, was to "tell unforgettable stories"; Degeneres wanted to "encourage people to dance to their own tune." The premise is, these people changed the world with their passion. Got a dream? Maybe you can change it too.

This is an incredibly appealing spot, if only because it reminded me of a time when beautiful people didn't need to produce sex tapes to capture our imagination. I felt like the witness to a rich heritage, and I wanted to contribute.