Commercial Shoots Highlight the Florida Experience

Working with AARP Florida as a volunteer, or even working with AARP as a staff member, can offer a lot of new experiences. Just ask volunteer Monica Stynchula or Associate State Director for Jacksonville Justine Conley.

In early August, both found themselves acting in television commercials – standing under bright lights in front of video cameras, while a New York-based film director barked orders, production assistants scurried to bring them refreshments and makeup artists touched them up before their next high-definition close-up.

It’s all part of the AARP Florida experience.

“This is what I love about volunteering for AARP,” said Stynchula. “There is no way I would have had this kind of experience otherwise. It was like being in a Hollywood movie.”

It was also exhausting work. Both were required to be on set in waterfront locations in Jacksonville and Tampa by 6:30 am during the shoots, which took place in August.

“I never realized filming a commercial is so much work,” marveled Conley as she completed a grueling nine-and-a-half hour stint of filming. Directors and crews from New York’s GREY advertising and creative firm filmed the spots. Directors asked AARP volunteers or staff to repeat their lines literally hundreds of times, varying intonation, inflection, facial expression, background and wording to have a wide range of possibilities to choose from when producing the final edited version.

Agreed Stynchula: “This experience gives me a lot more respect for the effort that goes into producing a TV series. This is hard work.”

Stynchula’s star turn came in an ad filmed overlooking the Waterside inner bay in Tampa, which is “invaded” by pirates annually during the world-famous Gasparilla festival. Conley was filmed in a spot overlooking the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville, with Jacksonville Landing and the iconic blue Main Street bridge in the background.

The film shoots were part of a nationwide initiative by AARP to feature volunteers (and some staff) in advertising shot in some of the hundreds of communities across the nation, where AARP volunteers and staff are at work every day to improve the lives of all Americans as they grow older.

The theme of the ads is “We Hear You,” an advertising initiative designed to highlight how AARP is equipping Americans 50-plus for the opportunities and challenges they and their families face. In Jacksonville and Tampa, for example, the spots featured Stynchula and Conley explaining how AARP is working in these communities to support adult children caring for older parents, and to make the community more livable for all.

“I encounter people all the time who know AARP mostly for the discounts we offer our members,” Johnson explained. “They also may know we do a lot of work in Washington, D.C., to protect their Social Security and Medicare. Some may even know we advocate for Floridians 50-plus in Tallahassee, too, in the Legislature and before state agencies.”

“But people often are surprised to learn we’re working right down the street or around the corner from where they live,” Johnson continued. “The truth is, AARP has almost 4,000 volunteers and 21 staff members across the state of Florida, active in dozens of communities, working on all kinds of ways to make life better for people as they grow older.”

AARP has invested thousands of volunteers and staff hours in deepening its engagement with community organizations, local business and elected leaders and residents in communities such as Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, Orlando and Miami-Dade County in recent years. And the work is paying off.

For example, in the past year and a half, seven Florida communities have joined the AARP-World Health Organization Age-Friendly Community Network, an organization of local governments that have banded together to improve the livability of their communities for people of all ages. Working with organizations like the AARP Foundation and the Feeding America network of food banks, AARP has helped fund and provide volunteer muscle to fight hunger in Miami-Dade County, Orlando, Tallahassee and other cities.

AARP volunteers and staff have tackled community-service projects of all types around the state during AARP’s Annual Day of Service, begun after 9/11 to foster the sense of unity and community service seen nationwide after the terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, day in and day out, AARP volunteers continue to offer Smart Driver driver safety courses through the AARP Foundation Driver Safety Program; to help taxpayers prepare their annual federal tax returns free of charge through the AARP Tax-Aide program; to fight for fair and reasonable utility rates, as in their work to voice opposition to a Florida Power & Light $1.34-billion base rate increase now before the Florida Public Service Commission; and to work to persuade the next President and Congress to update Social Security to keep it strong for our children and grandchildren.

To talk with AARP staff or volunteer leaders about becoming a volunteer, call 1-866-595-7678 or email flaarp@aarp.org.