Hemoba Foundation and Leo Burnett Turn a Football Shirt Into a Blood Donation Drive
Hemoba Foundation's 'My Blood Is Red and Black' is a 2013 public service campaign created by Leo Burnett Tailor Made in São Paulo that removed the red stripes from Esporte Clube Vitória's iconic kit, restoring one stripe per blood donation milestone until the full shirt was recovered, lifting donations in Bahia state by 46 percent against an initial target of 25 percent within six weeks.
The campaign launched in Brazil in June 2013, brokered through a cross-sector partnership among Hemoba — the state blood bank of Bahia — Esporte Clube Vitória, and uniform sponsor Penalty. Leo Burnett Tailor Made's sports-marketing team assembled this alliance and produced the campaign voluntarily, according to reporting by shots.net. Vitória, one of Bahia's most supported football clubs, took to the pitch in a stripped-back black-and-white version of its normally red-and-black jersey, with each red stripe earned back only as the community met blood donation targets. The shirt itself became a live, public progress report visible to tens of thousands of supporters inside the stadium and to a national television audience watching match broadcasts.
In Brazil, where football loyalty operates as a form of civic identity, the strategic alignment between a blood bank and a beloved club created a motivation structure no conventional public health appeal could replicate. The campaign's single media asset — the altered jersey — carried the entire creative and communicative load, translating a clinical donation imperative into an emotional act of solidarity with a beloved team. All jersey stripes were restored within five weeks, according to adsspot.me, signalling that donation milestones had been met ahead of schedule. The Clapboard Score for 'My Blood Is Red and Black' is 79 out of 100, reflecting its exceptional strategic coherence, award recognition, and verified impact against a measurable public health objective.
Brazil's blood donation landscape in 2013 was a regulated, non-commercial public health system in which state blood centres, hospitals, NGOs, and national campaigns competed for donor attention rather than consumer spend, according to Clapboard's analysis of the sector. Hemoba faced a structural challenge common to blood banks across the country: donation rates fluctuated sharply with the calendar. Research published via Scielo Br indicates that average weekly donations in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, and Recife fell to approximately 1,753 during holiday periods compared with around 2,021 during typical weeks, illustrating a material, recurring shortfall tied to seasonal behaviour. Brazilian donation regulations compounded the difficulty, with intervals set at 60 days for men and 90 days for women, according to data cited through Pmc Ncbi Nlm Nih Gov, meaning campaigns needed to generate new first-time donors rather than simply accelerating repeat visits.
Leo Burnett Tailor Made identified football passion as the untapped behavioural lever. Esporte Clube Vitória's supporter base in Bahia provided a ready audience with pre-existing emotional investment, and the club's red-and-black identity supplied the campaign's central metaphor at no creative cost. The jersey modification reframed donation not as a medical act but as a communal rescue of something the fanbase visibly valued. This approach placed 'My Blood Is Red and Black' in direct contrast to conventional public health advertising in Brazil, which had historically relied on clinical imagery and awareness messaging. Competitors for donor attention — including national campaigns run through the Brazilian Ministry of Health and regional blood bank initiatives — operated largely through broadcast media and institutional signage, making Hemoba's experiential, sport-integrated model a genuine category departure. As reported by latinspots.com, the campaign generated national and international repercussion well beyond its Bahia state origin, extending its reach through organic media coverage that a standard awareness campaign could not have achieved within a comparable budget.
The creative execution of 'My Blood Is Red and Black' rests on a single, disciplined idea: the jersey is the medium. Leo Burnett Tailor Made, operating out of São Paulo, chose to eliminate every conventional advertising format and place the entire campaign inside a physical object worn by professional athletes in front of a live audience. Marcelo Reis, VP Creative Partner at Leo Burnett Tailor Made, served as the campaign's creative leader, as documented by shots.net. Under his direction, the team designed a mechanic where Esporte Clube Vitória's shirt began each match cycle as a monochrome black-and-white garment, with individual red stripes reintroduced to the kit each time a specific blood donation milestone was reached, according to reporting by adsspot.me.
The production required coordination across three distinct organisations — Hemoba, Esporte Clube Vitória, and uniform manufacturer Penalty — to approve, manufacture, and distribute altered jerseys on a timeline tied to actual donation volumes rather than a fixed campaign calendar. This meant the creative output was genuinely dynamic: the shirt's appearance changed in response to real donor behaviour, making every match a new chapter in a story the Bahia public was actively writing. As noted by lareclame.fr, the campaign was described as extremely clever precisely because its mechanics and its message were inseparable — you could not explain what the jersey looked like without explaining why blood donation mattered.
The campaign contains one media asset, as documented on Clapboard. Beyond the jersey itself, the project generated extensive earned media coverage across Brazil and internationally, with outlets including lareclame.fr and latinspots.com amplifying the story without additional paid distribution. The creative team brought together by Marcelo Reis achieved what few public service campaigns manage: a physical object that communicated urgency, progress, and community simultaneously. Additional production credits for 'My Blood Is Red and Black' beyond Marcelo Reis's confirmed role are not fully documented in publicly available sources, though the campaign is attributed to Leo Burnett Tailor Made, São Paulo, across award records held by The One Club and the Cannes Lions archive.
The results of 'My Blood Is Red and Black' are among the most precisely documented outcomes in Brazilian public service advertising. Blood donations in Bahia state increased by 46 percent against an initial target of 25 percent, achieved within six weeks of the campaign's launch, as reported by shots.net and consistent with figures cited across adsspot.me and latinspots.com. All jersey stripes were restored within five weeks, according to adsspot.me, confirming that donation milestones were met ahead of the campaign's own internal schedule. Blood donations in Bahia state reached a new record by the campaign's conclusion, per reporting on adsspot.me.
Award recognition confirmed the campaign's standing among global creative and effectiveness peers. The Cannes Lions 2013 jury awarded 'My Blood Is Red and Black' a Gold Lion in Outdoor, a Gold Lion in Direct, and a Silver Lion in Design, as reported by lareclame.fr and documented in Cannes Lions records. The One Show 2013 awarded the campaign a Gold Pencil in Experiential Advertising — Events and Competitions, annual ID 13073G, as listed by oneclub.org. The campaign also appeared in The One Show's Interactive Advertising — Environmental and Experiential, Single category, annual ID 13044N, and in The One Show's Integrated Branding — Public Service Campaign category, both per oneclub.org records.
No single campaign in the Hemoba Foundation's documented history generated comparable international press attention in the same period. The structural effectiveness of the mechanic — tying a football club's visual identity directly to a public health outcome — created accountability that generic awareness campaigns cannot replicate, making the 46 percent uplift a credible consequence of design rather than seasonal variation.
'My Blood Is Red and Black' was a 2013 public service campaign by Leo Burnett Tailor Made for Hemoba, the blood bank of Bahia state in Brazil. It removed red stripes from Esporte Clube Vitória's football jersey, restoring each stripe as blood donation milestones were met, ultimately raising donations by 46 percent within six weeks.
Esporte Clube Vitória played in a black-and-white version of its normally red-and-black jersey. A single red stripe was returned to the shirt each time a blood donation milestone was reached. All stripes were restored within five weeks, according to adsspot.me, signalling the campaign had exceeded its original 25 percent donation target ahead of schedule.
The campaign won two Gold Lions and one Silver Lion at Cannes Lions 2013. As reported by lareclame.fr and Cannes Lions records, the Gold Lions were awarded in the Outdoor and Direct categories, and the Silver Lion in Design. The One Show also awarded it a Gold Pencil in Experiential Advertising, per oneclub.org.
Marcelo Reis served as VP Creative Partner at Leo Burnett Tailor Made on 'My Blood Is Red and Black', as documented by shots.net. He led the team that developed the jersey-based mechanic and brokered the partnership among Hemoba, Esporte Clube Vitória, and uniform manufacturer Penalty, producing the campaign voluntarily.
Blood donations in Bahia state increased by 46 percent, exceeding the initial target of 25 percent within six weeks, as reported by shots.net and consistent with figures cited by adsspot.me and latinspots.com. Donations reached a new state record by the campaign's end, according to adsspot.me, making it one of Brazil's most effective public health activations.
Leo Burnett Tailor Made identified football loyalty as a behavioural lever unavailable to conventional blood bank advertising in Brazil. Esporte Clube Vitória's supporter base in Bahia provided a pre-existing emotionally invested audience, and the club's red-and-black identity supplied the campaign's central metaphor, reframing donation as a communal act of solidarity rather than a clinical obligation.
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