Direct choice: Save the Children

by Frazer Howard, Creative director, EHS Brann Cirencester, Marketing 17-Oct-07

This mailer, from the children's humanitarian charity Save the Children, certainly pulls the heart strings in its appeal for donations to help provide affordable basic healthcare for the children of Liberia.

The pack opens out to reveal a sunflower height-chart across the four
leaves of the mailer, with the height of one child, called Samuel,
marked against the stem at every birthday. However, the flower dies when

it reaches the height of a Liberian five-year-old, with the message 'one

in five children in Liberia will die before their fifth birthday'.

The use of the sunflower paints a mental image of a happy, plentiful,
idyllic childhood, a picture brought to a sudden halt as the flower
withers away, signifying the high infant-mortality rate. The
accompanying case study explains how the little boy could have lived if
his mother had been able to afford basic medicine.

Pretty grim stuff. However, in a sector where a high number of charities
are chasing the same donors, this mailer tells the blunt truth, but in a
compassionate and reasoned tone. The height markings of the boy on the
wall chart are even to scale, re-enforcing the message.

The height-chart, combined with the sunflower, creates a tangible and
emotional message that is sure to spur potential donors into honourable
action.

Mailer: Proximity London.