Toddlers Rap Up First Aid in British Red Cross' Cheeky Hip Hop Spot

British Red Cross has joined forces with award-winning creative agency FullSIX and production company Good Egg’s Chris Sweeney in an innovative campaign to spread the word about the importance of baby and child first aid.

The charity’s “First Aid Rapped Up” campaign focuses on how fun first aid can be in a bid to encourage more parents to do a course or download their baby and child first aid app. The message is being delivered via three highly creative 50-second music-style videos directed by Chris.

Chris who recently directed Lily Allen’s comeback video Hard Out Here, has worked with huge names in the world of music including Sam Smith, Robbie Williams, Lana Del Rey, Paloma Faith, Will Young, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Marina and the Diamonds and Jessie Ware– but this was his first time working with babies as the star attraction. 

He joked: “Kids have a lot in common with rappers – they love to wear their trousers low so you can see their boxers or nappies hanging out, they like to party, drink from the bottle, scribble on walls and hang out in hot tubs or baths together. So, we decided to use those things that rappers and babies have in common as the format for our videos.”

Executive Producer at Finger Music, Clare McGrath says: "We teamed up with Good Egg's Christopher Sweeney, to create the music for the latest British Red Cross campaign. The campaign involved creating an instructional rap to advise parents what to do if their child suffers from a burn, seizure or is accidentally poisoned.

This was a fantastic project. We searched high and low to source and record Britain’s youngest up-and-coming rap stars, aged from 5-8 years. I had the wonderful opportunity to spend several days in the studio with them to create an authentic (yet adorable) Hip Hop track that was both fun and informative. 

We were delighted to be working with such inspiring talent, and to be part of another worthy campaign for the British Red Cross.”

Commenting on the lip sync, Alex Gabucci, VFX Supervisor at CherryCherry explains “We shot the children with tracking markers on their faces so they could perform naturally without worrying about lip sync. The synced lips were then composited in post and were taken from selects from a second shoot using children slightly older singing the lyrics”

Rob Trono, creative director at FullSIX London, who devised the concept, said: “We wanted to do something that was fun for parents. Everyone seems to make them feel guilty and we felt it was time to do something different.” 

“You don’t have much time to yourself as a parent and when you get a chance to go online you just want to have five minutes of fun to escape all the pressures of being a parent. That’s why we chose to do something light-hearted and engaging and we thought it would be really nice if the message came from children for once rather than a brand, or adults talking to each other.”

The tongue-in-cheek videos cover three important areas of baby and child first aid – poisoning, febrile seizures and burns. They all feature children and babies in blinged-up prams and souped-up cots “rapping” about the importance of first aid, with lyrics such as, “We ain’t broke, yeah, we’re still in the game. Our parents could cope with some simple first aid.”

Fiona Smith, head of marketing, creative and brand development at Red Cross, said: “The videos are really innovative and creative, to make parents sit up and take notice. It is a tongue-in-cheek approach with a serious point behind it and we hope parents will find the videos engaging enough to share with their friends and family so we can spread our important message.”