Make A Wish - Wish to play for England
For football-mad kids living with critical illnesses, their wish to play for England will sadly never come true. Or so people think. We can’t turn the kids into professional footballers, but we can turn the professionals into the kids. Partnering Make A Wish with The FA for an England friendly match, let’s change the names on the players’ shirts to the names of Make A Wish children, so they become the stars.
We will tease the Make A Wish stunt before kick-off by releasing a lineup of entirely unknown England players.
When the original tweet has caused mass confusion, we will reveal the stunt for the evening’s match.
Every England player will wear the name of a Make A Wish child on the back of their shirt. Transforming the professionals into the children.
While England are pulling on their custom shirts, ITV will get in on the act and share our stunt with the nation by announcing England’s brand new lineup of Make A Wish superstars.
The stunt will be announced at Wembley and the children revealed to the crowd when the starting lineup appears on the big screen.
As the players make their way onto the pitch, the custom England shirts will be revealed to the entire nation and watching world. Every commentator for every international broadcaster will naturally have to explain to their watching audience why England are wearing different names on their shirts - giving Make A Wish and the children mass global publicity.
Throughout the match fans on social media will be updated with how our young superstars are doing in their first start for England.
Every footballer has a goal celebration in their back pocket. So do our young superstars. When an England player scores, they will reveal a celebration they created with their Make A Wish child before the match.
The day after the match we’ll take out adverts in national newspapers to share a full match report highlighting how well our young superstars performed for England.
