England rugby legends back #BleedForEngland NHS campaign
By Rich Leigh on Thursday, September 17, 2015
On the heels of this brilliant National Blood Week effort, NHS Blood and Transplant has launched a new campaign calling on 100,000 new volunteers to show their support to England throughout the Rugby World Cup – by registering to become a blood donor between now and 31st October (the day of the final).
According to the release, fewer than 3% of people living in England aged between 17 and 70 have given blood in the last year.
The story leans on the stance that by giving blood, you’re supporting England ‘in a way that matters’.
In its ‘Restore the Rose’ digital hook, every time a person registers to give blood, a single pixel is restored to a rose housed on the blood.co.uk website. Updated on a daily basis, the totaliser currently stands at 28% – meaning an additional 28,000 donors have registered since England’s first warm-up game a month ago.
In the campaign video below, ex-England rugby World Cup winners Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Johnson, Ben Kay, Matt Dawson (the less said about him at the minute, the better…!) and Jason Leonard give blood. NHS Blood and Transplant used a few drops of their sterilised blood, mixed with paint, to re-create and sign artwork of the English red rose.
So far, the campaign has been featured on Good Morning Britain, Channel Five News, Talksport and more. Sports stars including Alan Shearer, Darren Gough, Steffon Armitage, Ben Youngs, Sean Fitzpatrick and Chris Eubank have all tweeted their support.
Involved agencies: Pablo and MHP Communications
