Westwood One, 1-800 Flowers Partner For Sympathy Dialogue

John Tesh

Lia Knight

1-800-Flowers.com, together with Westwood One, has launched a fully-integrated nationwide initiative to educate, engage, and connect individuals around the difficult subject of expressing sympathy. The “Celebrating a Life” campaign, which kicks off this week, is designed to create a platform for thoughtful dialogue about navigating through the many cultural and social sensitivities that factor into offering caring support during times of loss.

Spanning radio, digital, social media, and video, the “Celebrating a Life” campaign will address emerging and challenging topics surrounding sympathy and grief, including the appropriate use of social media to express condolences, how to best offer support for loss in the workplace, writing sentiments for remembrance cards, and the cultural considerations for paying respects. Westwood One will ask its listeners for feedback and opinions in order to gain insights for additional areas of discussion. A new online destination at www.1800flowers.com/sympathy-articles will provide ongoing resources for all topics discussed during the campaign and provide a forum for those needing advice and guidance in times of loss.

“1-800-Flowers.com has long been a trusted partner in helping those coping with loss and we've witnessed the eternal challenges experienced over what's appropriate to say or do, as well as the evolution in the ways sympathy is being expressed,” said Jim McCann, Founder, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc.

“Increasingly, the celebration of one's life has become the ritual of choice, rather than the ceremony of mourning one's death. With its extensive national reach and ability to thoughtfully connect with its audience on sensitive topics, Westwood One will help drive and ignite this important conversation about coping with loss in modern times.”

“We’re proud to collaborate with 1-800-Flowers.com to help facilitate, and be part of this very human conversation,” said Mary Berner, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cumulus Media, the parent company of Westwood One. “Radio is an accessible environment for listeners to explore a wide variety of topics, while providing a trusted communication platform to discuss the more challenging topics. Westwood One enables 1-800-Flowers.com to have a 1:1 conversation about coping with loss while reaching almost a quarter billion Americans a week.”

The national dialogue will be anchored by Westwood One syndicated radio talent John Tesh and Lia Knight during conversations each week on the hosts’ respective shows.