To show their support for the grieving couple who spoke out about an ad run by their company on a local news station, Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air announced today that they have now partnered with the couple who filed the complaint in a new campaign that they hope will bring awareness to the dangers children face around toilets.
Orem, Utah – In response to a local news story run about a grieving couple’s complaints against one of their ads, Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air, an electric, plumbing, heating & air company in Utah, announced today that they will be launching a new safety awareness campaign in partnership with the couple who voiced their complaints so bravely.
The news story featuring Vince and Lark Martinez first aired on a Utah news station on the 18th of March. The focus of the news story, for the Martinez family, was to point out the unsafe circumstances which the ad run by Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air promoted. The ad in question featured a child playing above an open toilet with a rubber duck followed by the tagline “No Job Too Small, We Fix It All!”. Speaking from experience, Martinez pointed out that the ad was no laughing matter as their son had passed away from the same situation being displayed by the ad. In 1994, Martinez’s then-14-month-old son, Gregory, lost his life after he had leaned too far over the toilet bowl, fell in, and was unable to pull himself out. Gregory sustained massive brain damage and later died as a result of his injuries.
Lark Martinez described a feeling of shock after seeing the ad in her mailbox. She contacted Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Airabout her concerns and spoke with a representative in their marketing department who stated that pulling the ads would be very hard to do and that the purpose of their ad was only to be relatable to parents because their company gets hundreds of calls a year as a result of children flushing toys down the toilet. Not satisfied with the response she received, Lark then decided to turn to her local news station to tell her story and to point out the real dangers posed by the ad.
After the story aired, both the Martinez family and Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air instantly began receiving a massive amount of public feedback, both positive and negative, as well as hundreds of private messages.
Lark described some of the feedback that she received as insensitive and hurtful, but said that there were also plenty of people who showed their support and cared about the message she was trying to send about their loss and the valid concerns she had about the ad.
After contacting the Martinez family, Wyatt Hepworth, the owner of Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air, apologized to the Martinez family for the ad and the pain it had caused their family. He released a public statement of condolences and also promised that he would do everything he could to immediately remove the ad wherever possible.
Taking their conversations one step further, Wyatt and Lark together began to formulate a toilet hazard awareness campaign. At Lark’s request, Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air will not only run awareness ads in their local papers and online to point out the dangers of allowing young children to play near un-locked toilets, but Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air will also be offering a free child-proof latch with any plumbing purchase over $50. Instead of distributing ads that feature a toddler around an open toilet holding a rubber duck, the new ad campaign will feature the same child holding the rubber duck, only the toilet now be safely clamped shut with a child proof lock followed by a picture of Lark and Vince Martinez offering their statement about child and toilet safety.
“We are working together and I feel very blessed for this situation,” Lark Martinez said Thursday. “I feel confident that so much good is coming out of this.”
Together, the Martinez Family and Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air hope to leverage the public attention they have received to help save lives.
Wyatt stated that “If we can save even one child’s life by working together on this campaign, we have done something well worth fighting for.”
