The idea is to make New Yorkers donate theirs.

Organ donation in Australia has risen 58% over the past five years. But before you get excited about, read the stats: our donation rate was 16.9 donors per million people in 2013 and the country is aiming to achieve 25 donors per million by 2018.

In New York in 2013, there were 223 deceased organ donors in the Greater New York metropolitan area compared with 234 in 2012. More than 10,000 people are waiting for organ transplants in the New York Organ Donor Network’s service area. New York is ranked 49^th out of 50 states when it comes to organ donation.

So the New York Organ Donor Network asked Y&R New York to help. The result is a rousing animated film about saving a New York that is dying. Even its landmark clock in Grand Central Station is on the verge of losing all of its power. But New Yorkers rally together, gather up parts of the dying city – street signs, manhole covers, park benches – and fashion them into a heart whose centrepiece is the ailing clock. The heart begins to beat, sending new surges power throughout the city.

The little film ends with the tagline, Keep New York Alive, followed by a call to action: “Sign Up As An Organ Donor.”

Its executive producer, director and DoP was Laurent Witz, the writer and director of short film, Mr Hublot, that won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the 2013.

Other credits are:

Agency: Y&R New York

Chief creative officer: Jim Elliott,

Executive creative director: Glen Jacobs

Creative directors: Josh Schildkraut & Miranda Dean

Executive director of content production: Letitia Jacobs

Producers: Emma Starzacher & Sarah Haroldson

Production company: Zeilt Productions

Character design: Jerome Gillet & Ghayth Chegaar

Production assistant: Joane Degive

Music composition: Francois Rousselot

Musicians: Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra