Actor David Tennant launches anti-poverty campaign with The Multibank to bring hope
- - Actor David Tennant “thrilled” to be Multibank Charity Ambassador and launch its Autumn on screen anti-poverty campaign “to bring hope”.
- - One million UK families experiencing poverty helped by Multibank this year and with public support .3 million by December
- - A crowdfunder with The Big Give launches to get millions more urgently needed goods out to hundreds of thousands more ahead of winter.
Global acting legend, David Tennant, will launch a major charity initiative against poverty this Autumn fronting a screen advertising campaign to raise awareness, funds and products for The Multibank charity.
The iconic Scottish actor has become an Ambassador for The Multibank charity and is raising support for its innovative, simple, cost-effective and environmentally friendly way of supporting millions of people experiencing poverty and schools in areas of high deprivation.
The Multibank is like a food bank but for essential items and everything else that makes a house a home. Co-created in Fife in 2022 with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his local family centre The Cottage, The Multibank is designed to be a nexus between businesses like Amazon, who have excess household stock, and local charities who know the families in need in their area who need them the most.
Sky have produced and donated the TV advert with a score gifted by Emmy Award-winning composer Daniel Pemberton to highlight the pioneering and vital work of The Multibank, including some of its staff. It debuts on Sky-owned channels, Amazon Prime, Disney, terrestrial channels, and on Digital Cinema Media this week and will run through October.
It’s accompanied by a print, social and OOH media campaign which will drive attention to the stark choice some people have in choosing which basic essential item they can afford to buy.
It poses the question: ‘Toilet roll or a toothbrush?’ and responds with: ‘No one should have to choose’.
This simple yet shocking dilemma brings into focus just how tough daily life is for the 14.3 million living in poverty in the UK – 4.3 million of them are children.
Child poverty is described by Gordon Brown as “the tragedy of the 2020’s”.
More than 100 businesses now partner The Multibank alongside founder-supplier Amazon, and send their excess stock or lend logistical and technical support.
The positive and money-saving impact of The Multibank’s goods on those who receive them is instant: a warm coat, bedding, duvets, school uniforms, sports kit, crockery, personal and household hygiene products, shoes, towels, shampoo, underwear.
The Multibank crowd-funder with The Big Give – Supporting struggling families – launching today will run for the next two weeks.
Every pound raised will be match funded by The Big Give and the funds will be used to get 3 million more products redistributed to 300,000 more people to help support their dignity and, as David says in his video, “bring hope.”
86% of The Multibank's professional partners report a boost in confidence and self-esteem in their recipients following receipt of Multibank goods, which are always given free, as gifts.
The Multibank now has six bases across the UK – Fife, Wigan, Swansea, London, Tyne Tees and Birmingham – and between them, over the last three years, they have redistributed over 11 million products to nearly 2 million families through a network of over 3,000 local charities, community groups and care professionals across their regions.
Multibank Ambassador David Tennant says: "I think The Multibank is a brilliant, clever and very pure idea. The companies and businesses have products they can’t use or can’t sell and The Multibank takes them, repurposes them and gives them to people who can’t afford them, who are suffering, and makes their lives better. Everyone wins. It’s one of those perfect ideas. I can’t believe it hasn’t already existed and I’m thrilled to be supporting it."
Said Sky Group CEO, Dana Strong: "At Sky, we’re proud to stand alongside The Multibank, whose work supporting families in need is more vital than ever. By combining our resources, expertise and creativity, we can work together to deliver meaningful support for families when it matters most."
Said The Multibank's President and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: "The tragedy of the 2020s is that nearly 4.5 million children are facing abject, dire and never-ending poverty that will shape their whole lives unless we act. While we await the government‘s Child Poverty Review, we cannot allow children to suffer and that is why The Multibank has given out 11 million goods to more than 1 million children to relieve deprivation in six different regions and nations of Britain. Our target is to move to 20 million goods as soon as possible to help 2 million children."
Said The Multibank’s CEO, Katharine Sacks Jones: "The harsh reality is that 14.3 million people in the UK are living in poverty right now, including 4.3 million children who shouldn't have to choose between toothpaste or toilet paper, school shoes or food on the table. The Multibank exists because no family should face these degrading daily dilemmas. With David Tennant and our media partners' support and the generosity of the British public, we can reach more of the millions of families trapped in this cycle and provide them with the daily necessities that most of us take for granted."
David Tennant’s film for The Multibank is officially launched tonight (Monday, September 15) at an event in central London, hosted by Sky Creative and Sky Cares, to an audience of British business leaders in the hope they will support by gifting their excess and in-kind products to help us support more households in need and improve their own social and environmental responsibility targets.
The print campaign will run across billboards and in major British news titles including:The Daily Mail,The Telegraph group,The Guardian,The Times and Sunday Times,The Sun,The Financial Times,Reach PLC,DC Thompson, and Publicis platforms. All titles and platforms are gifting their space.
The Multibank crowd-funder with The Big Give – Supporting struggling families – launching today will run for the next two weeks (until September 30).