Pablo has collaborated with specialist rehabilitation nurse Kate Tantam to launch a major new billboard and digital radio campaign which calls for an end to the postcode lottery for rehabilitation services.
Highlighting the importance of rehabilitation services, the campaign draws on the concept of “first steps”, with the Pablo team travelling to rehab centres in order to document a series of patient “firsts”, including monumental moments like first steps during rehabilitation or first words.
To capture the “first steps” patients feet were painted with safe, non-slip paint and their very first footsteps since hospitalisation were then captured on sheets of vinyl which have now been transformed and immortalised on billboard posters calling for rehab provision for all.
In addition, a digital radio advert includes a patient using the first words post-rehab to appeal to the public, it also includes a call to action by Richard Hammond who relied on rehab after a crash while filming Top Gear in 2006.
The billboards can be seen live in seven cities throughout the UK, while the digital radio ads are being played nationwide. Additional OOH media has been donated by Jack Arts.
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The campaign points people to PetitionForRehab.com where they can sign a petition calling for rehab to be made available everywhere, and for a named rehab lead to be appointed on every hospital trust and board in the UK.
It has been supported by royal colleges and professional bodies including Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, British Geriatric Society, Asthma + Lung UK and the Stroke Association.
“With one in two people expected to get cancer in their lifetime, and one in six expected to suffer a stroke, more and more people are requiring rehab services. Far from being a niche issue it effects us all, and it is a humbling experience to see the huge impact specialist rehabilitation experts like Kate can make,” said Pablo executive creative director Dan Watts.
“We hope people will see the campaign and sign the petition calling upon the government to make rehab more universally available and a rehab representative to be appointed at every single hospital.”
ICU rehabilitation nurse and founder Kate Tantam added: “Rehabilitation gets our patients back to the people and things that they love. There goals might not seem big – to hold their grandson, to make a cup of tea, to go to the loo on their own, to say ‘I love you’ – but they are mountains to climb if you can’t move your arms or legs or have lost the power of speech.”
“Rehabilitation gives people back the lives they have lost. I hope this campaign helps persuade NHS leaders across the UK to provide much needed rehab services”.
