Hasta La Ideas

St John Ambulance has today launched a heart-wrenching campaign, titled Save The Boy, that aims to encourage people to learn basic first aid, as while there may be thousands of SJA volunteers in the UK, they can’t always be there when an emergency occurs…

The campaign begins with an ad, shown above, directed by Dougal Wilson, which shows a child badly injuring himself by falling from a tree, with his father powerless to do anything to help him due to his lack of basic first aid skills. The spot is then supported by an interactive web experience, found online at sja.org.uk/savetheboy, where users can aid the father in helping his son, and learn some useful first aid information themselves along the way.

Wilson became involved with the campaign following a traumatic experience of his own. “When I was asked to get involved in this campaign I was already committed to another project but it proved hard for me to turn down,” he says. “I had an experience myself where someone needed my help and I didn’t know first aid, and I will always feel that I could have done more. By putting other people in this position through the film, and then teaching them how to save the boy with the online interactive experience, we hope to avoid anyone having that feeling of helplessness in real life. First aid is so simple to learn and I hope this encourages more people to be the difference between life and death.”

Credits:
Agency: BBH
Creative directors: Matt Doman, Ian Heartfield
Creatives: Rob Ellis, Alex Ball
Production company: Blink
Director: Dougal Wilson