As usual with my blog posts, I like to browse the world wide web for new, innovative ideas that really inspire me as a creative whether its something humorous, something that’s simply clever or in this particular case hard hitting reality. I don’t know why but I’ve always had a fascination for hard hitting marketing, marketing that really gets to the point fast and tell it to you like it is. Maybe it’s the initial shock factor that has always appealed to me, I’m not sure.
When I came across this piece of ambient marketing from Germany, I didn’t know whether to like it or dislike it. You see, it’s highly controversial in my opinion but it is also new and pushes the boundaries of modern advertising techniques which I love.
The idea was to help promote the important message about organ donors, a subject that is often overlooked and there are people out there whose lives really depend on it.
To get this message across, a young man in dialysis called Michael Stapf (who has been waiting years for a kidney replacement but unfortunately there has been no suitable donor ) was the ‘star’ of this campaign. He was placed on a platform in the middle of Frankfurt station with all the required medical equipment by his side which helps to keep him alive.
Members of the public waiting for their train or leaving the station were compelled with curiosity to find out what he was doing there and why. He lay there and talked about his disability and you could see that people genuinely cared and felt concerned for his well being and wanted to do all they could to help his sad situation.
This was obviously an idea that got a lot of exposure with both members of the public and the media and the campaign encouraged people to sign up to be an organ donor seeing first hand how it can change a person’s life.
What I admired about this and made me want to share it with you was not just the hard hitting marketing involved and how it had been executed but more importantly, the young mans courage and bravery to lie there and talk about his disability, spreading the word about the importance of organ donations.
Check out the video of this ambient marketing action below…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5cjSHwyU6M&feature=player_embedded]
Tom Fearon is a Designer and Guerrilla marketing expert at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
