Some of the most powerful and effective adverts we have seen over the past 12 months have been the result of a collaboration between a creative agency and a charity.
From homelessness to domestic abuse, mental health and even suicide, a huge amount of responsibility goes hand-in-hand with representing these often difficult subjects. Creatives are tasked with creating a hard-hitting marketing campaign, but also with developing thought-provoking ads that both embody the organisations’ causes and raise awareness of the issues they are looking to to address.
In a world where campaigns can get lost in the noise – and particularly in a year that has seen the cost-of-living crisis reduce the amount of disposable income available to many – charities and agencies must work extra hard to grab the attention and hearts of the British public.
Which campaigns have really struck a chord with people, compelling them to lend their support to a good cause this year? Here are nine of the most impactful and heartfelt charity ads released in 2022.
9 – Suicide&Co showcases letters written to family members taken by suicide
Making the shortlist in ninth place is suicide bereavement charity Suicide&Co and its ‘Words Unspoken’ campaign.
The hard-hitting awareness initiative featured real letters written directly from bereaved people to the loved ones they had lost to suicide.
Developed in partnership with brand comms firm Harbour, the charity’s emotionally charged campaign aimed to help families suffering to better process their grief.
The letters ran across large-format out-of-home boards nationwide and were supported by a number of Clear Channel’s ‘Platform for Good’ sites. Additional assets also ran across social channels and the charity’s website.
8 – Barnardo’s ad highlights effect of cost-of-living crisis on child poverty
In eighth place is Barnardo’s hard-hitting October campaign that highlighted the damning effect of the cost-of-living crisis on vulnerable families and children.
Produced by creative agency Open, the ad intended to not only tackle child poverty but also bring to light the challenges being faced by families struggling with rising food and energy prices.
The spot sees a young boy receive help from Barnardo’s as his mum struggles to provide for him.
According to the charity, research shows that 58% of Barnardo’s staff are currently supporting a child experiencing poverty and a further 62% are giving food to families struggling to finance food shops and other necessary purchases.
7 – Women’s Aid’s ‘He’s Coming Home’ World Cup domestic abuse message
Placing seventh is Women’s Aid’s chilling World Cup domestic abuse campaign.
Developed in partnership with creative agency House 337, the charity’s cutting promotion intended to bring to light the realities of sports-linked domestic violence.
According to research carried out by the University of Lancaster, incidents of domestic violence can increase by up to 38% during major international football tournaments.
The campaign is part of a wider two-year campaign running until 2024 – ‘Come Together To End Domestic Abuse’ – which has gained support from celebrities such as the Spice Girls’ Mel B and Dame Julie Walters.
6- Shelter dismisses cost-of-living ‘hacks’ in government-damning campaign
In sixth place is homelessness charity Shelter and its satirical cost of living ‘hacks’ campaign.
The series of out-of-home (OOH) ads rejected the UK government’s cost-of-living crisis ‘hacks’ and instead called on parliament to ensure that housing became more affordable.
One advertisement read: “Cost-of-living hack #14 Just work more hours! OR the government could make housing more affordable.”
Shelter created the mocking money-saving hacks to contrast them with what it believes is the real solution – the government dealing with the price of housing.
5 – Mind’s multi-platform nationwide mental health campaign
Making the top five is Mind and its multi-platform campaign which launched during Mental Health Awareness Week in May.
Spearheading the campaign were two one-minute spots featuring musical artists Jords and James Smith, who narrated spoken word poetry written by Rohan and Mel, people who have been helped by Mind’s services in the past.
The charity’s ads – created by Publicis-owned Langland – urged anyone who identified with the feelings expressed in the spots to contact Mind.
An out-of-home digital and print campaign also rolled out across the London underground.
4 – Relate’s ‘Horniculture’ older people condom campaign
Just missing out on a bronze medal is relationships charity Relate which comes in fourth place with its tongue-in-cheek ‘Horniculture’ campaign.
The gardening centre and digital-out-of-home (DOOH) condom promotion intended to target the rise of STIs in later life sex.
Supplied by HANX, the sustainable and bio-degradable condom packet designs nodded to the cheekiest of vegetable emojis and were displayed on billboards and in garden centres across the UK.
The Ogilvy-created campaign was launched after studies found that STI infections have more than doubled in the past ten years among UK adults aged 65 and older.
3 – Prostate Cancer UK’s Father’s Day 2022 film
Landing on the podium in third place is Prostate Cancer UK’s heartwarming Father’s Day 2022 spot.
The ad – created by London agency BBH – featured a collection of home videos interspersed with specially-filmed segments set to a dad-themed rendition of Robbie Williams’ ‘She’s the One’.
The cancer charity’s campaign intended to raise awareness around prostate cancer in the UK, which kills an estimated 11,500 men a year, with the spot’s key message being: ‘Imagine a day without our dads.’
“Thirty men die of prostate cancer every day. That is 30 dads, uncles, brothers and friends who will be lost this Father’s Day alone,” Prostate Cancer UK director of communications, Ali Day said.
2 – McCann London’s deepfake anti-knife crime video
Just missing out on first place and claiming second position is McCann London’s chilling anti-knife crime campaign.
The creative agency’s awareness initiative brought stabbed rapper Joshua Ribera, aka Depzman, back to life for an emotional deepfake music video commissioned by The Joshua Ribera Foundation – the charity that combats knife crime in his name.
The video, featuring a newly curated Depzman song called ‘Life Cut Short’, used deepfake and audio technology to tell the young man’s tragic story, describing his childhood, career and the night that he died.
Directed by Elliot Lee and Rory Peyton-Jones, the anti-knife crime campaign created in partnership with British media company SBTV was supported by founder Jamal Edwards who had been integral in the creative conception prior to his death earlier this year.
1 – CALM’s heartbreaking suicide prevention campaign
The winner of this year’s most powerful charity campaign is undoubtedly Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and its largest-ever suicide prevention initiative.
Back in June, Londoners were brought to a standstill by 50 6.5-foot high, unbranded ‘smiling portraits’, placed in London’s South Bank area. What first seemed to be photographs of people living ‘happy, care-free lives’, were soon revealed to be the last photos of people who took their own lives.
This initial OOH promotion was also supported by a harrowing 90-second TVC that debuted on ITV’s This Morning.
Produced by creative agency adam&eveDDB, the film showed a series of real home videos of ‘apparently happy’ people enjoying life. Towards the end of the spot it was revealed that all the videos were the last digital memories of people who later died by suicide.
The campaign aimed to highlight the harrowing fact that ‘suicidal doesn’t always look suicidal’ and that there is often a stigma attached to suicide, with people assuming that it looks like “reclusiveness, crying and silence” beforehand.
CALM CEO Simon Gunning told Marketing Beat that “if we understand that it happens to people that we recognise, rather than people that are abstract, then we can start to make it a part of our daily discourse and a part of our social function as a society by removing stigma.”
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