To coincide with National Organ Donor Week, the Trillium Gift of Life Network has launched its first youth-targeted marketing campaign.

Trillium, Ontario’s governmental agency overseeing organ and tissue donation, developed the Recycle Me campaign over the last year with Narrative Advocacy Media, a division of Toronto creative agency Bensimon Byrne.

The campaign is rooted in a new website, RecycleMe.org, where a young man (nicknamed Ben by Narrative staffers) encourages visitors to open his chest cavity to learn how various organs can be used.

The site also offers videos of testimonials and organ transplants, and answers questions about the donation process.

While RecycleMe.org allows visitors to register as a supporter of organ donation, they can’t officially register as potential donors. Instead, the names of those who sign up can be added to the site’s “wall” of supporters and registrants are provided with information on how to become a full donor.

At press time, more than 260 people had signed up as supporters since the site went live on Monday.

RecycleMe.org was developed by Mighty, Bensimon Byrne’s digital and design team.

Traffic is driven to the site by an online, out-of-home and transit campaign.

One transit execution advertises the fictitious Kidney Depot, a “one-stop renal shop” that offers free installation. Copy at the bottom of the ad says “If organs and tissue were this easy to find, we wouldn’t need donors.”

“Coming soon” construction site wraps for the fake organ store are also going up in cities across the province, including Toronto, Hamilton and Thunder Bay.

Trillium has also started a Twitter feed authored by a lung to drive social media users to the site.

Banner ads will appear on youth-focused sites such as MuchMusic.com, Facebook and Heavy.com.

“Research has shown that organ and tissue donation is simply not on the radar screen of most youth,” said David Caplan, Ontario’s Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, in a statement. “This campaign is an important step towards creating greater awareness and increasing donor rates.”

“When Ontarians are polled about organ and tissue donation, about 90% of them believe it’s the right thing to do but only 16% have registered to become a donor,” said Amanda Alvaro, managing director of Narrative. “Trillium felt if they wanted to create a big societal change, they had to start with a new generation. They’ve focused on youth hoping to make it more of a norm for them.”

The strategy, media and creative elements were developed through a six-month consultation with a youth advisory panel to make sure every element of the campaign was relevant to the target.

Alvaro said Recycle Me was created with a budget that was “not huge,” but hopes it will be only the first part on an ongoing campaign.