Roma use transfer publicity to raise awareness of missing children

Italian giants Roma are using the publicity around their transfer announcements to raise awareness of missing children.

As they announced the signing of midfielder Amadou Diawara from Napoli and Leonardo Spinazzola from Juventus, the club also tweeted pictures of several children, resembling the adverts traditionally placed on the side of milk cartons.

The campaign has been launched with Italian helpline Telofono Azzurro and the United States’ National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Each signing announced will see the club post two videos, one featuring missing children from Italy and another from the US.

The Serie A club’s head of strategy, Paul Rogers, said the idea had come from the music video for Soul Asylum’s 1993 single Runaway Train, which featured cases from the time.

Tony Kaye, director of the music video, has since claimed that 26 missing children were located following its release.

Rogers said: “With Roma, we thought, we could try and do something similar but updated for the social media generation, which didn’t exist when Soul Asylum released their video.

“We want to use the viral nature of social media transfer announcements to help raise awareness for missing children,” he added.