Takeda made it rain zebras at a Boston Celtics game Friday. The stunt saw 100 toy zebras parachute from the TD Garden arena’s rafters to represent the complex journeys of individuals with rare diseases.
The Celtics played the Cleveland Cavaliers in a home game Friday. With the Celtics up 87 to 70 in the third quarter, a stoppage in play allowed Takeda to mark Rare Disease Day. As the jumbotron showed Takeda’s logo and Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” blared out over the PA, 100 toy zebras began floating down toward the crowd. Attendees eagerly plucked the striped African equines out of the air.
The parachuting zebras were the centerpiece of a broader push to educate fans about how they can help the rare disease community. A jumbotron video outlined the zebra’s symbolic significance, and attendees who scanned a QR code shown on the big screens were sent to a Takeda website that provided more information about rare diseases and how zebras came to be the community’s mascot.
As Takeda explained, when people hear hoofbeats they expect to see a horse, not a zebra. Similarly, when people present with certain symptoms, physicians often consider common maladies first, delaying the diagnosis of rare diseases. Cheryl Schwartz, senior vice president and U.S. rare disease business unit lead at Takeda, outlined why that challenge is “deeply personal” to many people at the company.
“I know that I am not alone in counting friends and family members among those who are impacted by a rare disease,” Schwartz told Fierce Pharma Marketing via email. “Almost every day, whether personally or professionally, I have the opportunity to witness firsthand the impact of rare diseases at the individual, family, community and societal level.”
The plunging zebras build on a history of awareness drives involving Takeda and the Celtics—a team-up made all the more significant since Takeda moved its U.S. headquarters from outside Chicago to the Boston area in 2019.
For a few seasons beginning in 2015, Takeda donated to the International Myeloma Foundation for every three-pointer the Celtics threw during the regular NBA season as part of the “3 Points for Patients” campaign. Also in recent years, Takeda and the Celtics collaborated on the “Rebounds For Research” initiative that directed donations toward the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for every Celtics rebound.