Parkinson’s UK Returns with Hard-Hitting TV Advert to Launch ‘Time for Can’

Parkinson's UK is launching their hard-hitting ‘Time for Can’ campaign once again, returning with a bold TV advert set to air on Channel 4 during the semi-final of The Great British Bake Off.

The 30 second advert aims to increase the nation’s understanding of Parkinson’s - the fastest growing neurological condition in the world. The debilitating nature of Parkinson's can lead to a lot of ‘can’ts’ however the advert intends to convey a hopeful and optimistic message that it’s ‘Time for Can.’ The ‘cans’ show the viewer the role they are able to play in helping to find a cure for Parkinson’s and supporting the Parkinson’s community. This second phase of the ‘Time for Can’ integrated campaign aims to highlight the reality of living with Parkinson’s and the urgent need for donations to fund Parkinson’s research to find a cure now.

The TV advert aims to deepen understanding of the symptoms and severity of Parkinson’s. Each story represented in the advert is taken directly from someone’s experience of the condition and highlights aspects that people unaffected by the condition may not understand. 

Research showed that this group is ready to deepen their understanding and hold great potential to become strong supporters of the movement to transform the lives of people with Parkinson’s and find a cure - if they can be made to care about the condition. 

Made of user-generated content, the advert takes viewers on a fast-paced journey, showing both the brutal reality of living with Parkinson's and the research taking place to find better treatments and a cure - driven by people’s needs and powered by supporters. The advert shows what the condition stops people from being able to do, including walking, eating, working and sleeping, all of which will be explored in more depth across Parkinson’s UK’s social media channels and website. It then switches to show the determination of the community and what can be achieved by working together towards the ultimate goal of a cure. In addition to this, four brand new 10 second adverts which give an insight into a person living with Parkinson's, will be aired.

Hannah Dedman, Head of Brand, Marketing and Content at Parkinson’s UK, said:  “We’re excited to launch the second phase of our ‘Time for Can’ campaign. In 2020, we raised vital funds for our groundbreaking research and were able to increase understanding of Parkinson’s by 3 per cent. We were pleased to have secured almost 2,000 new supporters, whose donations went towards driving new treatments and a cure. We also learnt a lot thanks to feedback from our community, which has informed our approach this time.

“This was a bold and ambitious move from the charity, considering the climate of 2020, but one which proved our audience insights to be right. We have taken the themes from our powerful ‘Time for Can’ campaign from the winter of 2020 into 2021, to embed a narrative across our campaigns that conveys that Parkinson’s is a serious condition and that the charity is impatient for a cure. 

“The campaign will be instrumental in helping us to fund research breakthroughs. We know that Parkinson’s is complex and it’s hard to know the reality if you don’t know someone with the condition. That’s why we’re committed to getting Parkinson’s better understood amongst the wider population. By creating a sense of urgency with our voice and telling more stories of people living with Parkinson’s, we hope to inspire people to support us in funding research breakthroughs to make a real difference for people with Parkinson’s now.”

The Barber Shop strategically led this approach, which included going beyond getting Parkinson’s understood to showing how the charity is actively working towards a cure, along with using broadcast media to reach a broader, younger but unaffected audience. 

The TV advert will run across the Channel 4 sales network in two bursts from 16 November - 01 December and 15 - 29 December. It will be backed up by digital advertising, organic promotion on the charity’s social media channels, website and communications to their supporters. By using insight around audience engagement and viewing habits around seasonal advertising, Parkinson's UK hopes their strategy of driving awareness through reach will bring great success for the charity. The creation of a 30 second advert with a culmination of 10 second adverts will allow for a broader and higher frequency driven TV campaign.

The charity briefed its creative agency Blonde, to design the advert.

Doug Newman, MD of Blonde, said: "We’re extremely pleased that our hard-hitting ‘Time For Can’ TV advert has been given another opportunity to cut-through the Christmas commercial season to create real impact for Parkinson’s UK. Working closely with the Parkinson’s community again, we refreshed certain vignettes within the film which directly relate to the lives of people with Parkinson’s today. We updated this year's creative to focus more on the research, to stress how important it was, to show audiences that progress is being made and that with their support, a cure can be found.”

Benjamin Dawson, Creative Partner at Blonde, said: "We also jumped at the opportunity to create four 10 second adverts which we labelled ‘in-depths’, which gave us the chance to explore a particular aspect of what living with Parkinson’s means to an individual, at a slower and more detailed pace. These powerful, slower paced adverts, draw the audience into the actuality of what a person living with Parkinson’s must overcome. Connecting on a deeper, emotional and empathetic level, the 10 second adverts highlight how persistent they have to be on a daily basis, underpinned with a resilience and hope that reflects the tenacity of the Parkinson’s UK brand and the community as a whole.”

Dino Myers-Lamptey, Founder of The Barber Shop, said: “This campaign is a product of a braver and bolder approach to communicating the duality of the challenges and progress being made by the charity. By using TV to tell the story and an agile audience validated approach to creative, we generated much needed awareness. This year sees a return of that with a bigger budget, necessary to broaden the awareness and understanding and drive even more donations for research.”

The multi-platform campaign will run until 31 January 2022.