TV

THE GLUE SOCIETY CREATES ‘SCARY’ COMMUNITY SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT CAMPAIGN FOR ARTHRITIS AUSTRALIA

To view the spot click ....
HERE

... and here's what we posted about this a week or so ago:

For Arthritis Week this year (Sunday April 2 - 9) Arthritis Australia has opted to avoid the traditional approach to Community Service Announcements that use celebrities or other sympathy grabbing conventions in favour of a decidedly more frightening approach.

Says Ainslie Cahill, CEO of Arthritis Australia:
“The objective of our campaign this year is to snap people out of inaction - and encourage people who have arthritis to optimize their general wellbeing and health into the future – by seeing their doctor and contacting us for information and advice.”

To achieve this aim, they approached The Glue Society for a creative solution which would, like much of their work, create immediate public notoriety and attention.

Rather unexpectedly, they discovered that Jonathan Kneebone, founder of The Glue Society, was himself hospitalised with rheumatoid arthritis for a year at the age of five – and as a result it became a particularly pertinent project for both him and the other writers and directors on the project from Glue Society, Matt Devine and Luke Crethar.

Jonathan Kneebone says: “Arthritis can be profound in its impact on many people young and old. I have seen how it debilitates and slowly destroys someone’s liveliness. And because of my own experiences as a child with this disease, this project took on a particularly personal edge.

We were able to use my own insights to create what we feel is one of the most provocative commercials we’ve ever written or directed. But we have done this in the knowledge that it is being provocative for all the right reasons. Our creative idea is very much in tune with the way arthritis affects people.”

The actual content of the commercial is being kept under wraps in order that it has a very real impact when people do see it on air. But suffice to say, it is designed to scare people into action – and shows a typically ambivalent middle aged man being forced to consider the impact arthritis is having on his – and his partner’s - life.

“In order to pull off what was a very ambitious idea required a production team of the highest quality – and we were thrilled that so many wonderfully talented people agreed to donate much of their time to this particular project. As a result I feel it is one of our most compelling and effective pieces of work to date.” Kneebone added.
.