St John Ambulance launches hard-hitting first aid campaign
St John Ambulance have launched a new integrated marketing campaign to demonstrate that as many people die from preventable causes due to a lack of first aid as do from cancer.
Some 140,000 people a year currently die in situations which could have been prevented had first aid been administered, a figure equivalent to the numbers succumbing to cancer.
Helpless centres on a new film, premiered during last night’s episode of Downton Abbey, which follows a man’s successful battle against cancer – only to choke to death at a family barbecue.
Directed by Benito Montorio through Blink productions the clip adopts a distinctive style that is a hallmark of Montorio’s work on the likes of John Lewis ‘The Feeling’ and KFC’s ‘Emergency Chairs’ brand campaign, also by BBH.
Scott Jacobson, St John Ambulance’s Director of Marketing, Communications and Fundraising, said: ‘We wanted this campaign to really stun people with how needless it is for anyone to die in a situation where the most basic first aid might have saved them.
‘People know that cancer is a very serious illness and take steps to prevent it and look after loved ones who are stricken with it, so we hope that the tragedy of someone surviving cancer but then dying because he needed first aid and didn’t get it will raise awareness that a lack of first aid is just as life-threatening and will motivate people to text in for a free first aid guide.’