NHS brings back Valentine’s Day organ donation campaign

Called ‘Better Left Unsaid’ the work from Aesop Agency exceeded expectations and so the creative shop was asked to take on the challenge to raise awareness of living donations.

In just three weeks, the team led by Aesop creative directors Stephen Lynch and Ben Clapp developed ‘The Kidney‐Shaped Love’ campaign, a short comedy film that features a tongue-in‐cheek song written and performed by the comedian Alex Smith and composed by Philip Pope.

Set in a London working men’s club on Valentine’s night a small crowd of loved-­‐up couples are waiting to be entertained. Expecting a romantic ballad they are treated instead to an acoustic version of a song that features the lines; ‘I’d give you my heart But I’d have to be dead And I just got a free trial on Amazon Prime So please have my kidney instead…’

The film also features a number of the same characters from last year’s Better Left Unsaid work.

Stephen Lynch, creative director at Aesop explained: “Although living organ donation didn’t seem like a natural fit with Valentine’s Day at first, the idea of someone wanting to give away their kidney rather than their heart made sense somehow.

“It also offered up an opportunity to use humour to achieve standout for a very serious topic.” Currently almost 5,000 people are waiting for a kidney in the UK – more than the total number of people waiting for any other organ combined.

The film will run across social media – namely Facebook, You Tube and Instagram – and will include a number of spoof album covers that will be posted each day on Twitter in the run up to Valentine’s Day.