I saw a simple Macmillan Cancer Support ad last night and I recognised it as one I’d seen previously: it seems to have been rehashed for lockdown.
But… I was so pleased to see an ad that isn’t a vertical video, a series of Zoom calls, or a ‘thank you to our staff and customers’.
The ‘accidental’ vertical videos, in particular, are getting on my nerves – I just find them disingenuous: ‘oh, look at me, I don’t know how to use a camera – doesn’t this just feel so homemade?’ etc
And I’m so bored of seeing oh-so-clever people making cakes, doing martial arts, playing guitars while on video calls.
With the Macmillan ad, it was just nice to see something with some emotional substance, some backbone, and an important message.
This is short, powerful, packs an emotional punch, and has a strong, simple call to action at the end.
Yes, it’s a bit literal, and the ‘support’ metaphor is a bit clumsy/obvious, but it works.
And that will always be the main thing: not ‘do I like it?’, but ‘does it work?’
In this case, it most certainly does.
And it benefits from being squeezed in between absolute crap/generic coronavirus ads.
Let’s hope it brings in the donations it deserves, during this tricky time.