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Daisy Fuentes Joins March of Dimes Folic Acid Education Campaign
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., July 21, 2000 – Actress Daisy Fuentes has announced she will be the next volunteer celebrity featured in the March of Dimes national public service campaign that teaches women about the importance of taking folic acid.
The popular young film and television star made the announcement by video last night during the March of Dimes National Youth Leadership Conference in Atlanta, speaking to several hundred youth volunteers gathered at the leadership development event.
"I want to tell you how proud I am to join the March of Dimes national folic acid campaign. I get to spread the word to Latinas and women everywhere about the B vitamin folic acid, which can help prevent a baby from being born with a birth defect," Fuentes said. She encouraged the youth leaders to "take all your energy home with you and help spread the B attitude to everyone you know. Together, we’ll make a difference in the fight to save babies. We’re one youth movement that can’t be stopped."
In the second in the series of attention-getting print ads, shot by leading photographer Mark Seliger, Fuentes appears above headline copy that announces "Daisy Fuentes is not pregnant."
The ad is the centerpiece of an ambitious birth defects prevention effort by the March of Dimes, to alert more women of childbearing age to take a multivitamin with 400 micrograms (mcg) of the B vitamin folic acid every day as part of a healthy diet – whether they are pregnant or not. Daily pre-conception use of folic acid can prevent up to 70 percent of birth defects of the brain and spine, known as neural tube defects (NTDs).
NTDs are among the most serious birth defects in the United States and include spina bifida, a leading cause of childhood paralysis, and anencephaly (missing or incomplete brain and skull). Hispanic women are at higher risk for having infants with NTDs, with a rate roughly 45 to 50 percent higher than that of non-Hispanic white women.
Fuentes has enjoyed a successful career as a television actress and talk show host, appearing in the ABC daytime drama Loving, as well as Dream On, Cybill and The Larry Sanders Show. She has also hosted America’s Funniest Home Videos, CNBC’s Talk All-Stars and MTV’s House of Style. She has also been featured on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Latina, Vandidas, Maxim and Shape.
The March of Dimes worked with The Lord Group, a joint venture between Young & Rubicam and Dentsu, to develop the print campaign. Seliger waived his fee, donating his time to support the campaign.
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