PRESS RELEASE: MUST LAUNCH "ONE LOVE" / "ARE YOU UNITED" POSTER CAMPAIGN

[Paul Brooks]

MUST LAUNCH "ONE LOVE" / "ARE YOU UNITED" POSTER CAMPAIGN

On Saturday 3rd April MUST - The Manchester United Supporters Trust unveiled the first of a series of Green & Gold campaign posters throughout
Manchester, calling on fans to join its membership.

The first poster appears at the most prestigious poster location in Manchester (at the junction of The Mancunian Way and Deansgate/Chester
Road) featuring the message "ARE YOU UNITED?" above the trust's website "www.joinmust.org".

The ARE YOU UNITED message will be followed, over the next few days, with a ONE LOVE message - both designed for MUST by leading branding agencies The Cernis Collective and Why Not Associates.

The posters will run across a number of weeks, covering at least the home games against Chelsea and the Champions League quarter final home leg against Bayern Munich. The posters will be running on five 48 sheet and three 96 sheet back-lit sites provided by two major billboard companies.

The poster sites include Chester Road near Old Trafford, the M602 on the way to Salford, and outside the MEN Arena.

Other similar activity will follow over the coming days and weeks to begin the process of turning passionate 'protesters' into committed 'investors' as part of any new ownership structure at Manchester United.

Duncan Drasdo, the Manchester United Supporters Trust chief executive said: "We're now approaching 150,000 members who've signed up at www.joinmust.org and we feel it is now the right time to add another dimension to our efforts with the help of the top professionals from the advertising industry. The MUST campaign is already taking on an unstoppable momentum and this is going to give a huge boost to morale and grow support further."

"For the remainder of the season, our priority is to recruit Season Ticket holders and those who use Executive facilities at Old Trafford, but this advertising campaign will soon be going global to reach out to United's worldwide fanbase and give every supporter the chance to own a share in Manchester United. This morning the member counter at www.joinmust.org showed 149,660 supporters had joined. That is almost twice the capacity of Old Trafford but we want to give every Manchester United supporter the chance to participate and share in the future ownership of their club."

Justin Cernis, founder of The Cernis Collective, added: "This is just the beginning of a series of advertising initiatives we're working on with MUST. We're delighted to be contributing to the process of helping to develop and propagate a compelling vision of how supporters can get involved in owning their clubs."

Notes to editors:
Pictures of the poster design are available at the address below and further images will be added later today
http://www.joinMUST.org/posters

Richard Hytner, deputy chairman of Saatchi& Saatchi worldwide, is the President of MUST.