The stirring lyrics of ‘The First Time Ever I saw Your Face’ evoke the intense awe surrounding falling in love – certainly a fitting track for Motor Neurone Disease Association’s latest campaign that portrays the unwavering link between those with the condition and their carers.
The fact that Roberta Flack, who made the song famous with her 1972 Grammy win, has herself been diagnosed with motor neurone disease renders the choice even more poignant.
Conceived by Good Agency, the campaign launched last month to coincide with the Coronation Street storyline that has seen character Paul diagnosed with the condition after beginning to struggle with his grip, mis-throwing darts and dropping his glasses. Since, his challenges have mounted, reflecting the degenerative nature of the condition.
Soap operas might be renowned for being melodramatic, but they are also one of the most democratic ways of tackling tough and often unspoken themes in people’s lives.
Whether its grappling with male rape on Eastenders or the issue of coercive control on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, or indeed getting diagnosed with a rare condition like motor neurone disease (which impacts around 5,000 people in the UK) on Coronation Street, the genre is adept at it.
For Good executive creative director Bryn Attewell, part of what makes this Motor Neurone Disease Association campaign so compelling is its ability to show “the reality” intimately alongside the hard-hitting Corrie script.
“I think people are incredibly invested in soap storylines. They have fans, millions of people watch it week in week out and they get really involved, particularly with something like this, where unless they’ve had experience of it they won’t be aware of all the challenges having motor neurone disease throws up and all the difficulties,” Attewell explains.
While they were offered the chance to have actor Daniel Brocklebank, who plays Paul’s mate Billy and has a personal link with the condition, conduct a voiceover, Good decided to centre the campaign based solely on the authentic footage.
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‘The one thing Motor Neurone Disease can’t take is the love inside’
When they first received the green light on the project, the Good team did not have a particular script in mind.
At the start, the agency knew the purpose of the campaign, that it was “a big deal” and that it would entail a “chunky size slot within Coronation Street”, but they were going in with a simple idea: “that motor neurone disease takes your voice, it takes your ability to move, it takes everything really,” Attewell says.
“The one thing it can’t take is the love inside that people feel for each other and the care,” he adds.
Attewell first came up with the idea on a plane when he was listening to music and Flack’s rendition of the song.
“It’s a really appalling disease but if you treat it sensitively and with beauty, and sort of make it look as if you were shooting a film about love, the thinking was that could be really interesting. The juxtaposition between something really awful and something really lovely could make for a beautiful simple idea. And that’s how it evolved,” he explains.
Each of the people featured in the series has the condition themselves, and is shown undergoing daily tasks alongside their loved ones or carers.
“We had to create a really small, tight team,” adds Attewell. “It was the director Tim Brown, the director of photography Dave Meadows, myself and then a couple of op guys handling the cameras”.
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They shot the scenes in people’s living rooms, and were unable to ask those who had volunteered to be a part of the filming to carry out retakes, because for people with motor neurone disease tasks such as moving from a chair or putting on a shirt can be exhausting.
“We were just helping and guiding where we could and capturing what we could, but they were incredible in terms of letting us in. We were very fortunate that they were super accommodating and lovely, allowing us into their homes and their lives,” Attewell says.
To find the volunteers, Good Agency worked with the Motor Neurone Disease Association, who helped identify people with the condition who would be keen to be involved.
Asked about how they navigated the process of creating a series of films that was both impactful and tasteful, Attewell says Good’s approach was crucial.
“When you start out in advertising you learn everything about the product. You read the manual, you go to the factory, you experience the items. Here we do the same thing with people. Everything we do at Good is about telling the truth. We have a lot of conversations with people. Whether it’s motor neurone disease, or people experiencing homelessness for Crisis, or any other kind of charity that we work with – we listen.”
‘A bit like a dance’
That said, the challenge was making the touching concept into a storyline with an arc, which was tough-going given that most of the footage consisted of people carrying out everyday tasks.
Attewell was pulled in quite early to the edit. “We were sitting there trying to puzzle this out and we got some really interesting footage. The track works tremendously against that footage.”
He explains that eventually they realised that there was a part of the film with Sheffield couple Mike and Zoe, where Zoe lifts Mike’s feet with her feet that was “a bit like a dance”.
“All of the shots had that kind of rhythm and flow to them, and that was how we structured it,” he adds.
“I think that’s one of the interesting creative aspects. It’s not as simple as finding, going and filming something and sticking a track over it. There was a lot of craft and thought that went into the editing process and telling the story not just in a sensitive way but in a really powerful way that felt natural and human,” he continues.
There are set to be upcoming executions of the campaign aired, including some of the 20 and 30 second iterations and a 90 second iteration, alongside a range of digital assets.
“In terms of ITV, the campaign will be running concurrently with the storyline, and whatever developments there are within that story, I’m sure that will be reflected or mirrored by the campaign,” he adds.
But Attewell highlights that beyond ITV, the campaign has had a widespread positive response.
“It’s great that the advertising world has received it well. But actually, it’s entirely about the wider world and everybody out there, picking it up and helping the association, and creating change in that way,” he says.
Since they shot the campaign some of the people filmed have passed away, including Dr Louise Jordan, who had actually treated people with motor neurone disease in her capacity as a GP, with a specialism in end of life care.
The thing Attewell is most proud of about the campaign is the people with motor neurone disease, who were willing to display their most vulnerable moments.
“Without that, there’s nothing,” he says.
Above all, the campaign and its response are testament to the fact that while advertising is seen as primarily a commercial endeavour, and soap operas as mere entertainment, storytelling at its best can very much be used for good, and make a genuinely positive difference when it is for – and about – people.
