Scottish stars back our biggest ever campaign

Some of Scotland’s most recognisable public figures have thrown their weight behind our charity’s most ambitious campaign ever with the aim of boosting member numbers by more than a third to 500,000, doubling paid visits to 1 million and increasing regular donors and member visits over the next five years.

An extraordinary cast, from Hollywood A-listers to TV favourites and sports legends, have all given their time for free to support the charity.

The film takes the unconventional approach of asking Scots what they hate about Scotland before finding out what they love about the country. The film entitled For the Love of Scotland debuted on STV on Sunday 29 April, taking over the whole of a prime-time ad break. At three minutes, this is thought to be the longest Scottish TV advert ever made.

The cast includes Hollywood actors Brian Cox and Gerard Butler; sporting royalty Sir Chris Hoy, Judy Murray, Alex McLeish and international rugby players Stuart Hogg and Finn Russell; TV presenter Andrea McLean; and musician Evelyn Glennie.

The stars were joined by a host of National Trust for Scotland supporters from across Scotland as they revealed not only what gets them down about Scotland but what fires them up about the country.

Sir Chris Hoy hates potholes but loves how Scots can be the best in the world. Brian Cox hates having to work so far away from Scotland but loves how Scots all have a sense of home. Gerard Butler loves mountains, glens and lochs and naturally, Burns, but hates midges and smirr! With a nod to her passion for tennis, Judy Murray hates when ‘rain stops play’ but she loves our national treasures. Scotland manager, Alex McLeish, hates Glorious Defeat of course, but loves how Scots all pull together as a team.

Mark Bishop, Director of Customer and Cause at the National Trust for Scotland said: “Everything we do is for the love of Scotland. The hundreds of thousands of members, donors, volunteers, visitors and staff do what they do because they care about Scotland and we thought it was time to recognise that. The National Trust for Scotland isn’t just here for a lovely day out; it stands for something much bigger than that.

“We’re about coastlines and castles, art and architecture, wildlife and wilderness. We’re here to protect our natural and national treasures for everyone to enjoy.

“We’ve set ourselves an ambitious target to do two things – firstly to help people better understand what we do and why we do it, and secondly to protect the Trust for the future by increasing our members, donations and visitors.

“In creating this campaign, we’ve been heartened by the extraordinary passion we’ve tapped, from multi-award-winning actors and sporting royalty to our hard-working staff and volunteers and everyone else who champions our work. We have harnessed that support to help us shout louder about the important role we play in caring for Scotland now and forever.”