Paddy Power launches Missing People campaign with Motherwell

Flutter Entertainment-owned Paddy Power has joined forces with the charity Missing People and Scottish Premier League football club Motherwell on a new campaign to help find missing people.

Paddy Power placed cardboard cut-outs of blank silhouettes across the South Stand at Motherwell’s Fir Park home stadium to raise awareness of people who have gone missing.

Some 1,190 silhouettes were installed in the stand, in addition to a number of banners that read “Paddy Power’s Missing Fans”.

Cardboard cut-outs of fans have become commonplace in UK sporting venues during recent month, with supporters currently unable to attend events due to restrictions related to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

In addition to its in-stadium presence, Paddy Power will place posters of missing people across its 650 stores in the locations that they were last seen, in an effort to help find or establish the safety some of those who are missing.

“We all know fans are missing from football at the moment, but some are missing from wider life, too,” Paddy Power spokesman said. “We hope this campaign, and striking image, can spark conversations across the country – as the majority of our customer base are young men, the demographic that’s most at risk of going missing.”

Missing People chief executive Jo Youle added: “This is a highly visible and needed opportunity for families in communities across the UK to raise awareness of their missing loved one – at a time when it is so hard to search due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“We will also be getting the message out via Paddy Power stores to reach a key group of people at higher risk of going missing: men aged 18-39.”

Last July, Motherwell was one of a number of teams to sign up to Paddy Power’s ‘Save Our Shirt’ campaign, through which the bookmaker agreed to serve as the team’s title sponsor but not place its logo on players’ shirts.

Despite the lack of shirt branding, Motherwell at the time said that the deal represented the largest jersey sponsorship in the club’s history.