If your child starting choking, would you know what to do? Have you always meant to do a First Aid course but never quite got round to it? St John Ambulance is urging us all to learn more essential life saving skills with a new film campagin called
Popcorn.The film is set in a packed cinema, and begins as a fictional advert featuring a happy family enjoying popcorn. The tone changes as one of the children starts choking and the mother, not knowing what to do, turns to the unsuspecting cinema audience for help. An actress disguised as an audience member, suddenly stands up and shouts that she knows what to do while running up to the front of the cinema. The woman disappears behind the screen before appearing within the advert and using first aid to save the young girl's life. She then reappears in the cinema while the advert plays out with a message explaining how viewers can receive a free pocket first aid guide.
According to St John Ambulance, up to 150,000 people die each year in situations where first aid might have given them a chance to live.
Sue Killen, CEO at St John Ambulance, says: 'First aid saves lives but our research has found that most of us wouldn't know what to do if confronted with a common emergency, like choking. We wanted to devise a dramatic simulation which would make people take notice of the issue, and press them to get life saving knowledge. Too many lives are being lost when they could be saved; this is unacceptable and as the nation's leading first aid charity we are determined to equip people to be the difference.'
You can get a free pocket sized guide by texting SAVE to 82727 or visiting the St John Ambulance website for more information on the campaign. There's also an iphone app you can download from iTunes.The film is set in a packed cinema, and begins as a fictional advert featuring a happy family enjoying popcorn. The tone changes as one of the children starts choking and the mother, not knowing what to do, turns to the unsuspecting cinema audience for help. An actress disguised as an audience member, suddenly stands up and shouts that she knows what to do while running up to the front of the cinema. The woman disappears behind the screen before appearing within the advert and using first aid to save the young girl's life. She then reappears in the cinema while the advert plays out with a message explaining how viewers can receive a free pocket first aid guide.
According to St John Ambulance, up to 150,000 people die each year in situations where first aid might have given them a chance to live.
Sue Killen, CEO at St John Ambulance, says: 'First aid saves lives but our research has found that most of us wouldn't know what to do if confronted with a common emergency, like choking. We wanted to devise a dramatic simulation which would make people take notice of the issue, and press them to get life saving knowledge. Too many lives are being lost when they could be saved; this is unacceptable and as the nation's leading first aid charity we are determined to equip people to be the difference.'
You can get a free pocket sized guide by texting SAVE to 82727 or visiting the St John Ambulance website for more information on the campaign. There's also an iphone app you can download from iTunes.