Brazilian Football Advertising Campaign Boosts Organ Donor Numbers

A new advertising campaign in Brazil has helped to significantly reduce waiting lists for cornea and heart transplants to an all-time low.

The campaign, which targets football fans, has help reduce transplant waiting lists to an all-time low.
More than 30 football teams are encouraging fans to donate blood and a number of teams, such as Corinthians, have put health messages or slogans on their strips. One club, Victoria, replaced their red and black shirts with white and black and only went back to its traditional colours once fans had donated a certain amount of blood.
A nurse who leads the education campaign at the Pernambuco Transplant Center, Jacqueline Diniz, said, “Overall, the number of people who are organ donors has gone up and the number of people waiting for organs has gone down. This has been very important and had a huge impact.”
Sport’s Director of Marketing, Marcela Lima said, “Sport loved the idea. We understood that it is extremely important for a big club like ours to encourage and inform our supporters about how to save lives by being an organ donor.”