If you’ve taken a trip on the subway in the last year or so (we’re not sure how you would have avoided it), then you’ve probably seen one of the New York Organ Donor Network’s ads.
One particularly grim ad from the advocacy group had the ominous message “It kills New Yorkers to wait in line” printed over an image of people waiting in line, one of whom had a corpse’s toe tag.
The print ad was accompanied by a short video.
The group’s marketing efforts have changed direction with a far less ominous campaign called “Long Live New York,” which features an animated short film that debuted on Youtube earlier this month.
The short, directed by Academy Award winning director Laurent Witz, depicts New Yorkers collecting, donating and merging together iconic and everyday pieces of a dying version of the city in an effort to heal it.
Speaking on HuffPost Live, President and CEO of the New York Organ Donor Network Helen Irving, explained the meaning behind the group’scampaign of “Long Live New York.”
“‘Long live New York’ really came out of this sense that when you talk about organ donation we’re trying to talk about, on one hand the legacy that somebody can leave behind, and on the other hand the life that it gives. As a community in New York we’re really good at being proud of being New Yorkers. We love New York — we love our families and then we love New York. We want to do the right thing, and we want to stand by our friends and our families, and we want to stand by total strangers too. So the whole campaign of ‘Long Live New York’ grew from that, and it’s really an expression to say ‘We really care enough to make sure New York survives, and we care enough to make sure New Yorkers survive.”
According to the group’s new website only 23% of New Yorkers are registered as organ donors which puts the state at forty-ninth in the nation.
