Meet John Doe

Jon and Alicia Robertson frequently tune into Turner Movie Classics. But during a screening of “Meet John Doe” earlier this month, the couple, who own and operate ProColor Design and Robertson Publishing in downtown Los Gatos, had an epiphany. 

In Frank Capra’s Oscar-nominated black and white comedy-drama, the residents of a community come together to help each other.

Now, the Robertsons hope to do something similar for the Los Gatos business community. They have pledged to produce one 2-foot by 3-foot full-color, horizontal or vertical paper banner for each retail merchant in the town, for display in storefront windows—entirely for free.

“A lot of merchants are in trouble in the current economy,” Jon Robertson said. “Just as in the movie, we’re going to start a “John Doe Club,” and try to do something to help local business owners. So many people have helped us over the years, we’d like to return the favor.”

Robertson adds that his shop is already equipped to produce the signs, and his paper supplier has agreed to support the program.

“When my vendor heard what we were doing, he offered to sell me the paper at a greatly discounted rate,” Robertson said.

Just as in the more modern film, “Pay It Forward,” the couple hopes their good deed will generate a burst of goodwill among Los Gatans.

“We’re all in this together; we need to help each other. What if every company did something like this? It could be a community challenge,” Alicia suggested.
The Robertsons mailed postcards to local business owners, advising them that the banners will be available through the end of the year (one banner per merchant).

In 2008, the United States was in the middle of the Great Recession, caused by the massive collapse of the housing market due to unscrupulous banking practices. This hit almost everyone hard, and many small businesses were in trouble. Some were going under. 

Though the potential market for the free signs could be as many as 600 businesses, the Robertsons say they are happy to donate as much time, energy, and materials to the cause as necessary.

News of our “John Doe Club” offer was picked up by the wire services, and we were contacted by various people, including the owner of Zoo Printing in Palo Alto, who duplicated our offer in his town. So the idea did spread, like we thought it might. We ended up extending the program by about six months, and made quite a few signs.  I played the part of Gary Cooper; Alicia got to be Barbara Stanwyck, and you can’t get much better than that. 

Note: We made the offer again in 2014 during a second downturn. It worked just as well and the merchants appreciated what we did. People don't always know what they can do to help, but there are ideas all around. We just have to look for the ones that fit our capability.

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