Barnardo's: Believe In Me

This generation of children will need support to help them cope with the lasting effects of bereavement and loss long after the crisis is over, to avoid a long-term impact to their mental health and wellbeing. This is the message from Barnardo's on the same day the charity broadcasts the latest TV advert in its Believe in Me campaign, highlighting the importance of support services for children and young people who have experienced bereavement, loss or grief. The leading national children's charity says this is the situation for thousands of children who are facing a new reality after lockdown. In many cases, they have lost a loved one, lost the chance of opportunities they were about to take up or lost their normal support systems. The ad is the third in the series created by agency FCB Inferno and will be aired 24th September on Channel 4, Sky and C4 digital. It shows a young schoolboy talking about how he ‘feels different’ since recently losing his mother to an unexplained illness. As he reflects on the shock of her sudden death, we see he is being observed by a crow that is perched on his desk and caws disconcertingly. The crow continues to appear everywhere the boy goes: it flies overhead as he goes to school, it screeches indignantly from his locker as he gets out his textbooks, walks over his books as he tries to do homework, and even pecks at his bedcovers by night as he tries to fall asleep. Through the advert the audience is shown that his grief at losing his mother impacts everything he does. The crow is a metaphor for the overwhelming grief and sadness the boy experiences due to his mother’s death. The ad was filmed using a mixture of CGI animation, and live action using a real trained crow. Using an animal as a metaphor keeps the focus on the child at the heart of the story and allows the audience to connect with the feelings he is experiencing. It also allows us to show the ways in which grief can begin to affect every part of a young person’s life without implying that every child experiences it in the same way. The constant presence of the crow reflects the way in his world has been forever changed; and highlights his need for dedicated support and grief management. At the end of the 40 second commercial, it is revealed to us that the boy is recounting his experience of losing a parent to a specialist Barnardo’s counsellor and he is receiving the support he needs to deal with his loss, so it is ‘easier to smile’ again.