Throughout my day, I always find myself scrolling away on Tik Tok. I find most of my new favorite things on the app: new events, concerts, artists, or even things to buy the next time I am at the store. This past week on my afternoon scroll, I came across a promotion by the Red Cross of America. For the month of April, if you go into a drive and donate blood, in return they are giving out T-shirts with Snoopy as Joe Cool with a phrase “Be Cool. Give Blood.”
I want to take a moment to say how these are the coolest shirts I have ever seen. The moment I saw it, I knew I needed it. Minutes later, I was on the Red Cross website looking at appointment availability in my area. I made my appointment and counted down the days in excitement for my donation.
In the days leading up to my trip to the Red Cross, I noticed how viral this T-shirt was all over social media. It consumed my FYP on Tik Tok, I saw it on Instagram and Twitter, and I even had friends asking me if I had seen these shirts. In all the videos on Tik Tok, everyone was talking about how they never give blood or go to blood drives, but they all were going to do so to get this shirt. There were people who were unable to give, but still wanted to know how to get involved with the Red Cross in order to receive a shirt. I thought it was funny, but also telling how incentivizing donations for blood via a Snoopy shirt caused a surge of people wanting to come in to donate for the first time.
My friends out-of-state mentioned the low availability for appointments, and even on social media, people want to donate, but the drives are full. I hope with this incentive that a large impact was made on the individuals in need, especially since we are currently in a blood shortage.