Despite outrage from offended social media users, the Japanese Red Cross will continue to use a popular manga character to promote its blood drive campaign.
Advertising that saves lives
Blood banks are always searching for donors to replenish their stock that is used by people who require transfusions.
However, many people do not consider donating.
Given this lack of donors, organizations have carried out advertising campaigns to attract new donors in this noble cause.
On September 27 last year, Bandai Namco, a video game developer, carried out a campaign where they gave away their new game, Code Vein, to those who donated blood to the American Red Cross during TwitchCon.
Later in October, the Japanese Red Cross began its own campaign to collect blood.
It was a collaboration with Uzaki-Chan from the Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! series.
However, Uzaki-Chan’s persona does not seem to have been to everyone’s liking.
As reported by SoraNews24, during the campaign, the Japanese Red Cross received messages from offended Twitter users who did not understand how they could use the “disproportionate and over-sexualized” figure of Uzaki-Chan for a blood drive campaign.
Although Uzaki-Chan is seen in some suggestive scenes, the image that caused the attack on the Red Cross isn’t.
The attack escalated so quickly that lawyer Keiko Ōta (known for being against all this sexualized content) came to accuse them of somehow promoting sexual harassment.
Finally, the Red Cross gave in to the pressure, so they removed the image of Uzaki-Chan from the campaign and instead were limited to discreet-sized posters pasted on busses near where blood drives took place.
There will be more Uzaki-Chan
However, shortly after the Uzaki-Chan campaign was suspended, it was confirmed that blood donations decreased dramatically.
That is why, despite all the outrage on social networks, the Japanese Red Cross decided that saving lives was more important than avoiding offending Twitter users and announced that as of February 1, the collaboration with Uzaki-Chan will begin again.
The popularity of the first campaign with Uzaki-Chan was so great that this second part will be extended to multiple regions in Japan, including Tokyo, Ibaraki, Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, Gunma, and Tochigi.
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