Blood6

DONATION NOT DISCRIMINATION   

Colourful Campaigning

One way of encouraging local media to come to your event is by making it look unusual! In addition, the more colourful and creative your demonstration is, the more approachable you will look - don't forget you want to encourage as many people as possible to come and talk to you and sign your petition, so looking friendly and interesting is really important. Below are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• When thinking about ways to make your demo colourful, start by thinking about the themes of the campaign and what we are trying to achieve. For the Donation Not Discrimination campaign these might include: discrimination, donation, HIV/AIDS is not a gay disease, risk, danger, contamination of supplies, homophobia, encouraging donations, civic duty, saving lives.
• Think about ways you can subvert traditional messages around donation. For example, you could rewrite the NHSBT slogan 'Do something amazing today: Give Blood' with 'Do something amazing today: support our campaign/let us give blood'.
• The same principle applies to images. What are the symbols that already exist that you can use? The rainbow flag is a powerful and colourful image that you can use in different ways to symbolise the LGBT community. For example, you could paint rainbow-coloured blood drops, use rainbow-coloured balloons or face paints.
• Rubber stamps are fairly cheap to make and you can get them from stationery shops like Staples, or online shops such as www.rubberstampsdirect.co.uk. You could get one designed in the shape of the NUS campaign slogan and stamp them on donor’s arms before they go in to donate. When they give blood the stamp will be shown on their arm.
• A cleverly-constructed and well-planned piece of street theatre can be more effective than simply standing around, and is more likely to attract press coverage. Think about how you can use music, colour and humour to get your message across. If you are organising a ‘bring a friend’ day, find out if the people who are donating in your place would be willing to get involved in a press stunt. How could you use the two groups of people (those allowed to donate and those not allowed to donate) to maximum visual effect?
• One of the campaign messages is that the LGBT community is made up of individuals who behave in di f ferent ways – GB men are not all high-risk just because they are gay or bisexual. Think about ways you could get this message across. Why not have half the demonstrators wearing blank masks to show the way in which the NBS treats GB men as all the same, and heterosexual people as individuals?
• Making a colourful and eye-catching banner could also brighten up your event. Why not hold a banner-making and colourful-campaigning session before your information picket? Invite as many people as possible to attend, and use this time to discuss ideas for the campaign and to break the ice if people don't already know each other.

  If you do make a banner, it is important that the letters can be read if they are far away or if they are photographed. Banners are easiest to make on cloth which can be bought by the metre, with long sleeves sewn or glued along each side through which you push the wooden poles.

  Give yourself plenty of time to make your banner – it will take longer than you think. Make sure you start work at least a week before the demo. When thinking about the design for the banner, keep it simple and make sure it is spelt right! Think about using the slogan Donation Not Discrimination - if lots of people around the country are using the same slogan it will have more impact.

  Essentials you will need for banner making: cloth, paints (ask in an art shop for the most appropriate type), wooden poles (bamboo).

• Other ideas for creative campaigning: make matching T-shirts or papier-mâché masks, use face paints, display cardboard cutouts of letters or images, wear sandwich boards, decorate your stall with balloons.

Whatever you do, use lots of colour, be friendly and approachable, and have fun!