Irish Heart Foundation — Escape Your Chair

The Irish Heart Foundation is on a mission to prevent the number of lives currently affected by heart disease and stroke. Their primary goal is to grow public awareness of the health risks of sedentary behaviour and provide encouragement for office workers to move more throughout their day. In Ireland, 68% of adults are not meeting the physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week.

The Escape Your Chair animated series is a tongue in cheek way of encouraging people to get out of their seat and getting moving through the use of exaggerated, dangerous scenarios. The campaign began with an anonymous social media account called “TheChair” which featured amateur photos of chairs and began commenting on thousands of profiles feature photos of people sitting down.

The Irish Heart Foundation then released a PSA style video which revealed they were behind the account, and this animated video contains content created from the tease phase of the

campaign, and encourages people to escape the chair. This reveal was followed by a series of short animated tips videos which plays on the fact that it is actually as easy as standing up.

The Escape Your Chair Campaign successfully made people aware of the health risks associated with sitting - nearly 400,000 people were reached through IHF social posts during the campaign.