NEWS

Earlier this year, Manchester United reported that their players had received 350 per cent more abuse after the club undertook their own survey over a 17-month period monitoring abusive messages sent to players.

To combat this, many well-known players and their clubs decided to stand up to racism by boycotting social media for four days.

The campaign objective was to reveal how prominent footballers are on social media, and how the platforms would suffer without them. They hoped to make social media platforms acknowledge the issue and work to combat and prevent the abuse received online.

Athletes from across the sporting world came out to support the footballers by partaking in the social media boycott, a sign that this issue is by no means limited to the so-called beautiful game.

At the end of April, Manchester City FC and England footballer Raheem Sterling took to Twitter to share the following message as part of the campaign: “We are switching off our social media channels from 3pm on Friday 30 April, until 23:59pm on Monday 3 May, in response to sustained and ongoing online abuse.”

In February this year, an advert to support the NHS was aired starring Elton John and Michael Caine in hope of encouraging the over 70s to get a COVID-19 vaccination. 

The celebrities, aged 74 and 88, were shown in an ‘audition tape’ talking about the vaccines. To deliver the serious message, the advert was made light-hearted using comedy, with moments including Elton stating that he was “still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah” after his vaccination. 

A well-timed stunt from Doritos left people intrigued and disgusted by their new crisp flavour of strawberries and cream. 

To concur with the Wimbledon tournament, Doritos posted an image of their strawberries and cream crisps on their Instagram and almost instantly, it caused uproar amongst its followers. 

Although the crisps never appeared on supermarket shelves, it certainly caused an entertaining stir online, once again offering some comic relief at a time when it was greatly needed. 

For their first marketing campaign in 30 years, Lego released a feel-good advert which followed a man chasing a white rabbit through numerous surroundings with nods to their toys continuously featuring throughout. 

At first glance the advert looks like a fun film displaying a scenario a child may create using their Lego toys. However, a closer look allows some viewers to recognise that the changes made throughout the interview are ones made to have a positive impact, hinting how viewers can improve themselves by making changes. 

Lego used the advert to appeal to both young and old audiences and amassed over 11 million views online. 

Deodorant company Sure, used their digital PR campaign, “Watch Me Move”, to combat the fear of being judged based on how you look stopping you from becoming more active 

The main objective of the inspiring campaign was to “turn that fear on its head by empowering those who feel self-conscious to overcome their doubts and move how you want to, no matter who’s watching.” 

The content creators and athletes who starred in the advert challenge society’s unrealistic image of how people should look. Throughout the video, they ignore other people’s stares and judgement to exercise and move. 

Society’s image of how athletes and people should look is often reinforced by the media, but Sure used their campaign to set the record straight by challenging and destroying this unrealistic preconceived image.