PR Campaign in Wales – Supporting Public Health with the #DistanceAware initiative
In July 2020, Whitehouse were brought in, on a pro-bono basis, to support Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (former president of the British Medical Association and member of the House of Lords) and Dr Helen Iliff (Prince Charles Hospital) with building a communications campaign around, and national support for, the #DistanceAware initiative.
The Distance Aware initiative was launched in Wales with the support of Welsh Government to enable individuals and organisations to self-identify as wanting others to maintain distance where possible. Raising awareness of the campaign was of paramount importance, given the government’s official guidance on shielding was coming to an end.
Whitehouse fed in information about the campaign directly to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock’s special advisors and raised awareness of the campaign to all major national broadcast, print and online press correspondents.
Through the excellent work of both Baroness Finlay and Dr Helen Iliff, and with the support of Whitehouse, we were pleased to see the Department for Health and Social Care officially endorse the campaign and its objectives. We were also pleased to see national media attention being gathered around the campaign too.
The #DistanceAware campaign has seen an overwhelmingly positive response with nationwide interest and endorsement. The initiative has been supported by charities and a range of businesses across the UK, many of whom are also providing badges. We hope to continue to see this initiative move from strength to strength in the coming weeks and months.
Testimonial:
“This inclusive initiative provided ways for people to prompt that they need social distance around them to be respected, and for others to signal that they want to do this. The generous steer over publicity from Saagar at Whitehouse at all times has supported this initiative taking off across the UK” Ilora Finlay
