The British Heart Foundation has launched a new brand campaign, ‘This is Science’, to inspire greater public support for its life saving research.

The campaign tells the real stories of people who are only alive today thanks to the public’s donations powering BHF medical breakthroughs that have transformed science fiction into reality. 

With someone dying from heart and circulatory disease every three minutes in the UK, the campaign spotlights the charity’s need for greater public support if it is to continue to make scientific breakthroughs that will save and improve lives.

The campaign launches with a film, voiced by Peaky Blinder’s Cillian Murphy, which premiers on TV and in cinemas from 29 December. It opens with a young boy, with a scar on his chest, getting ready for school. The voiceover reveals that, ‘he was a scientific hypotheses’, as the viewer sees a CGI visual of the 3D printed heart that was used to guide his surgery. 

The ad then shows a man in his 60s in a forest, with the voiceover explaining ‘he was a ground-breaking innovation’, which is visualised as an artery being widened by a stent. 

Finally, we see a teenage girl playing football, before she collapses suddenly. The voiceover explains that the ‘breakthrough that could cure her is closer than ever’. The ad closes with Cillian saying that, ‘With our research, we can keep saving lives like hers. Donate now to turn Science Fiction into Reality’.

Saatchi & Saatchi collaborated with director Ben Strebel through Biscuit Filmworks and MPC to bring the BHF’s mission to life with the film. 

The work signifies the start of a new brand strategy for the BHF, positioning the charity as a crucial frontline agent in the battle to outsmart heart disease. In line with the new approach, Saatchi & Saatchi has developed a future-facing look and feel to modernise the brand and better reflect the game-changing science the BHF supports. 

Alongside the film, the integrated campaign includes press and out of home ads featuring the people from the film alongside CGI images that vividly depict the scientific breakthroughs they’ve benefited from.  

The campaign will be further amplified by emotive videos and images, promoted on organic and paid social channels, telling the stories of real people who have benefited from BHF discoveries or are still waiting for the next breakthrough. 

For more information about the campaign, visit: www.bhf.org.uk/science

Real house. Real broadband. Real nerves. 

Directed by BAFTA award winning producer Tom Hooper, the ad follows real life family of five the Saleys, who watch on in excitement as their Harrow home is transformed into a remote air traffic control system connected by their EE Full Fibre Max broadband router.

The remote unit was set up in The Saley’s dining room, midst the family’s busy household, to share relevant data in real time directly to the pilot, aiding the smooth landing at Cambridge airport.

While all three Saley children played on their PlayStation, and their parents continued streaming content to their laptops, tablets, smartphones and other connected devices all running on their EE Full Fibre Max broadband, EE was able to broadcast several huge streams of data from the family home, providing accurate airspeed and rate of descent, all glitch-free, and assisting the pilots to fly and land the plane on the runway.

Pete Jeavons, marketing communications director at BT and EE, said: “In today’s connected family home, we know how many devices can be online at one time and this is increasing all the time, so this demonstration was about showing that despite how many devices are already relying on EE Full Fibre, the broadband can still cope with so much more.”

Guillermo Vega, chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, added: "EE's new Full Fibre broadband can handle anything you throw at it, so we put it to the test with a product demo on an epic scale.”  As well as crediting Hooper, Vega paid tribute to the air traffic controllers and “our incredible technical production partner The 5Gs” for making the “seemingly impossible, possible”.

The final film in BT's three part series features footballer Marcus Rashford as he explores the important role literature plays in introducing young people to Black British history in their early years of school.

The episode will see Marcus share recommendations and a carefully curated list of books for parents and carers to inspire and help children and young people discover more about black history and culture. The list will be available on the Pan Macmillan website, www.panmacmillan.com and will feature books and resources by authors including Floella Benjamin, David Olusoga and Lenny Henry and illustrators such as Diane Ewen and Dapo Adeola.  

Operation Black Vote (OBV) has released a hard-hitting awareness campaign, as part of an urgent appeal to encourage underrepresented communities to register to vote.

In the UK, the 6th May sees the first major vote since George Floyd’s murder nearly one year ago. However, ethnic minorities still show worryingly low levels of registration compared to the national average. BAME non voter registration is at 24%, compared to 6% in white communities.

If people aren’t registered by Monday 19^th April, they will not be able to vote.

The campaign focuses on the importance of registering to vote and delivers a stark message. By not exercising a power to vote, the 200,000 people that attended mass rallies, the 135 arrests, and the on-going campaign to tackle racial injustice, can be seen as ‘all for nothing’.

Operation Black Vote is urging underrepresented people, not just Black, Asian and minority ethnic individuals, but also young people too, not to underestimate the power of their vote to help create real change.

Saatchi & Saatchi client BT will be supporting the campaign and running the 60 second film across its BT Sport channels. Saatchi & Saatchi is also building conversations and awareness through Clubhouse, and across various podcasts.

Lord Woolley said : “Voting absolutely makes a difference. Look no further than what occurred last November in the US. The voters voted for an end to racial division, and for racial equality for all communities. We’ve seen people here protest for change.  The most radical political act you can do, is to register to vote, use your voice, and vote.”

OBV is a not for profit, non-party political organisation focussed on voter registration and getting the vote out, political mentoring and nurturing leadership. Its foundations are based on the four pillars of education, participation, representation and equality promotion. 

More on OBV here: 

https://www.obv.org.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Vote