I had to share this video as I spotted this campaign on the news this morning and I think it is a brilliant campaign from the British Heart Foundation that has combined humour with a serious issue. Many people in the UK don’t know how to give CPR when someone is in cardiac arrest and the idea of doing it to the music of Staying Alive is just genius as it makes memorable. If it saves one person’s life it will be a campaign worth doing and I think it has been executed beautifully. 
They have gone all out on a viral and social campaign by making sure all of their channels have been presented correctly in the form of a social media hub. They have an iphone app, videos, a blog and you can even buy campaign T-shirts.
Their twitter channel has more than 17,000 followers and asks you to use the campaign hashtag #hardandfast – again very clever messaging.
Then they have gone one step further by asking people to sign their online petition to make emergency life skills as part of the national curriculum. The site states:
“Knowing how to stop bleeding, open an airway or perform CPR should be considered as important as knowing your times tables.
“We want to create a new generation of life savers across the UK by ensuring that emergency life support skills (ELS) are taught in all schools and communities.”
I think more people in the UK should learn general first aid as you never know when you might need it.
Well done to all of those involved.
Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.
