fbpx

Make-a-Wish foundation’s little heroes hit TV for the first time with the help of Blacksand and Jason Paris

The Make-A-Wish foundation has made history by releasing its first ever TVC, with TVNZ Blacksand’s Our Little Heroes campaign celebrating the heroic nature of children suffering life threatening medical conditions in the hope of gaining further reach to grant more wishes.

The 30-second TVC is currently playing during peak time and will do so until 25 April on TVNZ. It’s made up of a series of episodes filmed by TVNZ Blacksand depicting the joy the children feel when their wishes come true. 

  • Check out the stories on the website

According to a release issued by Make-A-Wish, approximately 400 children every year are diagnosed with a life threatening medical condition. The charity currently grants 200 wishes per year and development manager Nick Redstone says it’s pursuing its vision of granting a wish for every eligible child by 2020.

The superhero theme is a popular one for the charity. And back in 2013, it received a whole heap of media attention when San Francisco was turned into Gotham City for five year old ‘Batkid’ and cancer sufferer Miles. 

In Seattle in 2011, Erik Martin, a 13 year old who was living with liver cancer, got his chance to be a super hero for a day. And in New Zealand, the charity found its super hero in the form of past board member and general manager of Spark Jason Paris. Make-A-Wish received over $100,000 worth of TVC budget and production costs, which Paris won through a TVNZ charity donation, the release says. 

“Blacksand presented a series of concepts to us and collectively the Our Little Heroes theme was born,” says Redstone. “They worked with us to shoot TVCs alongside a series of episodes on the three children to feature on our website, their support was amazing.”

Make-A-Wish, which counts Cadbury and Holden as sponsors, says it works on three principles: hope, strength and joy.

“Our ‘wish children’ encompass these values, they are strong and they give their family and community hope,” says Redstone. “We enter a family’s life at a time when they are most tested. Families are struggling, due to the rigorous schedule of medical treatments and seeing their loved ones, unable to interact with siblings and friends – some children even have signs of losing hope. Make-A-Wish brings hope and strength to the families and children; it could be something as simple a puppy or as complex as a trip to the moon, we do everything to make the magic happen. When we deliver a wish, you see the joy stretch across the face of a smiling child and that is the joy Make-A-Wish brings to these children, simply the power of a wish!”

About Author

Comments are closed.