#makeitblue campaign Update

The #makeitblue campaign started 4 weeks ago as a collective of professionals within the events and entertainment industries. Its purpose - to express our collective support for those who are dedicated to caring for us during these difficult times… while we cannot work, we want to thank those who have to.

The first #lightitblue activation took place on the 26^th March with over 150 national and regionally important UK locations joining by going blue. This has been replicated every week with an ever-growing number of buildings and locations staying blue every Thursday night.

Last week #lightitblue went global with the USA participating for the first time and other countries are now in preparation for their first week reveal.  Spain, France, Singapore, Australia and other countries are currently in dialogue with us in the UK as the central coordinators.

Ours is a UK-wide campaign, with the following #lightitblue examples from the hundreds now participating:

• Tower Bridge, The Tower of London and London Eye / County Hall are among the London-centric contributors
• St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh; The Kelpies, Falkirk & the SSE, Glasgow contributed in Scotland
• Belfast City Hall turned blue in an incredible show of unity and among many Northern Irish contributions including the Titanic building
• Cardiff Principality Stadium, Cardiff city Hall & Swansea Guildhall demonstrated Wales’ show of support
• Other English contributors include Stonehenge, Angel of the North, Guildford Cathedral and Blackpool Winter Gardens
• We have even had support from Windsor Castle by turning the tower blue & with thanks to Her Majesty

The evolution of our #makeitblue campaign builds on this incredible support across all four countries of the UK & Northern Ireland by requesting public and business content contributions across all social media and networks.

We have a growing list of participants creating their own interpretations of #makeitblue, spanning the general public, sportspeople, musicians, actors, poets, artists, celebrities… and most importantly we are receiving contributions from frontline NHS staff and care workers, who are bringing their own creativity to endorse and welcome our personal messages of gratitude. It clearly is an opportunity for some to express themselves and offer a moment of mindfulness and mental health wellbeing.

How can Partner Associations & Organisations help?

We ask for two areas of support from any organisation wishing to contribute

1. Encourage & promote the #lightitblue effort to make even more buildings go blue each and every Thursday night.
2. To encourage businesses, groups & individuals to take part in the #makeitblue campaign by creating and recording online posts, tagging #makeitblue as part of their contribution

Note. We do not endorse non-essential travel or cause a breach of the self-isolation requirements, so building owners who don’t have pre-existing facilities can contribute by photoshopping photographs blue, posting up their endorsements via social media and contacting us via our contributor’s email address for us to add them to our press and media library

Collateral, brand guidelines, logos and content are available on request.

www.nhsmakeitblue.org; @nhsmakeitblue; Email: Share@nhsmakeitblue.org