The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada recently launched a new video, “#TheUndeading”, as part of their campaign to raise awareness about CPR to improve Canada’s CPR “save rate”, which is currently at only 5-6 percent. The theme of the video? A zombie apocalypse.
The video follows a woman who is wandering around a destroyed city, clearly frightened. She becomes surrounded by zombies and, out of fear, collapses from a heart attack. The zombies then go through the proper steps (which are highlighted through the use of in-video text) to aid a victim of cardiac arrest: calling 911 and performing compressions on the woman’s chest. The woman finally gasps for air, alive, only to be bitten by the zombies, who are now hungry for her now-flowing blood.
It is clear that the Foundation is appealing to a younger audience (around 15-35 years of age). Firstly, the big-budget ad has great production quality, and its stunning cinematography and ominous music score appeal to this demographic’s familiarity with the horror movie genre. This frightening element, juxtaposed with the subtle situational humour of zombies performing CPR appeals to the viewer’s affective component of their attitudes to incite a reaction. Short YouTube videos are popular with this audience, making them especially receptive to the video’s form of accessibility, and the release date of the video is timed well, coinciding with the approaching of Halloween (these both apply to Placement from the 4 P’s). Furthermore, the popularity of Twitter is capitalized on, as the video’s title uses a hashtag (#), prompting viewers to “tag” the topic in their tweets to generate buzz for the video. Finally, the presence of a dedicated website (which continues with the zombie-apocalypse theme) provides more interaction with the public beyond the video. Therefore, I definitely believe the Foundation did well in marketing to this audience.
The Foundation’s accompanying website for the video, www.theundeading.ca
Is this choice of target market wise? I think so, as the Foundation’s research showed that individuals under 35 are the most uneducated on CPR. Also, it is probably this age group that it pays off to educate, as they are more physically capable of (and more likely to be in the situation of) saving someone’s life, as opposed to young children or seniors.
Will the video take off, and join the world of viral videos? Maybe. It’s not extremely funny or controversial, which is what usually launches PSA’s into Internet superstardom. However, it helps that the Foundation is not just relying on one video to be their public awareness campaign, but is launching several other initiatives over the next two months: CPR training across Canada, partnering with the Toronto Zombie Walk, and attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the largest CPR training session at Canada’s Wonderland. The fact that the marketing campaign is diversified and is spread across various channels lowers risk and allows them to reach as many members of the public. So, even if the video doesn’t hit millions of views on Youtube, the multi-pronged campaign, overall, is sure to do its part in raising more awareness.
Sources:
The Globe and Mail – “Heart and Stroke campaign uses zombies to promote CPR”
Toronto Star – “Heart and Stroke Foundation launches campaign for cardiac arrest awareness”
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