Shelter appeals to the Chancellor for better human rights

by Julia Pearlman Brand Republic 19-Jan-06, 07:00

LONDON - Housing charity Shelter is appealing to Gordon Brown to provide additional social rented homes through a campaign that focuses on a boy suffering from health problems caused by damp conditions.

The campaign, planned and developed by Whitewater, is the agency's first work for the charity after being asked to develop new ways to encourage individual donor fundraising.

The creative has been designed to highlight the effects of the lack of affordable housing in the UK and urge the Chancellor to commit to providing 60,000 homes by 2011.

The case study details how the boy suffers repeatedly from breathing problems and chest infections because of the damp, one bedroom flat his family has to live in.

The copy reads: "A message to Gordon Brown" and the words "Give Sam Wilkinson his human rights" next to a black and white picture of the unhappy-looking boy.

Shelter is sending direct mail to 48,000 existing Shelter supporters asking them to add their names to the protest and to make a cash donation.

The charity is also using inserts to generate protest responses to be sent direct to the Chancellor, with an initial 175,000 test across a range of titles including The Big Issue, Time Out and The Spectator. Inserts will also be placed in Shelter shops.

Ben McNaught, Shelter's direct marketing manager, said: "This activity marks an exciting new step in our campaign to ensure the government keeps its promise to make an increase in social rented homes a priority."

He added: "This would help safeguard the future of tens of thousands of children. We're hopeful that by more closely integrating our campaigning activity with our fundraising in this way in the future, we will identify further opportunities to extend our supporter recruitment activity in a really cost-effective way."

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