Poignant Film for Age UK Highlights the Monotony of Life for Some Older People

Age UK, in partnership with Independent Films, Manning Gottlieb OMD and Drum has launched their latest 'No One Should HaveNno One' multi-channel campaign. The activity launched on 2nd December and will continue through to 26th December, supported across digital OOH, Age UK’s website and social media channels.

In addition, MG OMD and 4Sales have brokered a partnership between the charity and Channel 4’s much-loved 'Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds' for a Christmas Special episode airing on Monday 18th December at 9pm.

Over 1.2 million older people in England are chronically lonely and nearly half of the older people surveyed for the charity.[i] – equating to almost 5.7 million people aged 65 and over – feel their days can be repetitive and almost a quarter of whom (around 1.4 million older people) admitted that Christmas isn’t a special day for them and just passes them by.[ii] Using data to raise awareness of this stark reality, Manning Gottlieb OMD have identified Christmas ‘together moments’ (including Christmas parties, Christmas shopping and travelling home for Christmas), powerfully juxtaposed against messaging of older age loneliness.

The activity launches with a poignant film named ‘Just Another Day’ created by Drum. Directed by Philippe Andre, through the production company Independent, the film follows an older man’s unchanging daily routine without human contact across the seasons. The viewer experiences the monotonous reality of loneliness in later life, for which Christmas is just another day. The film is further amplified by out-of-home (OOH) in key locations across the country during Christmas ‘together moments’. This includes one of London’s busiest Stations, Euston, which will display moving messages to consumers as they pass through the station. On 24th December, the OOH finale will feature on London’s iconic Storm Cromination, reaching people as they travel home to loved ones.

Throughout the campaign, the charity is urging people to donate to help tackle the isolation that is making nearly a million (928,000) older people feel lonelier at Christmas time, two-fifths of whom have been widowed. [iii]

Separately, Manning Gottlieb OMD have brokered a partnership with Channel 4 to bring a one hour festive special of 'Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds', commissioned by Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment, Lucy Leveugle. The Christmas special, produced by CPL Productions, follows ten pre-schoolers and 11 older people as they are reunited following the first show earlier this year. The real life social experiment, powerfully demonstrates the psychological and physical improvements in lonely older people through regular human contact. Specially created sponsorship idents by Drum will feature around the show’s broadcast and contextual ad spots featuring the series’ well-loved stars discussing program content and how that contrasts to the lives of lonely older people.

'Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds' attracted an average of 2.8 million viewers per episode earlier this year, making it one of C4’s top ten shows in 2017 to date (excluding sport).

Kathi Hall, Head of Content Strategy and Brand at Age UK, said: “Launching our Christmas campaign is a very special time of year for us because it gives us the chance to show the day in day out reality of chronic loneliness and raise much needed funds for the charity to help vulnerable older people. Working with Philippe we believe we have been able to capture the poignancy of loneliness in powerful content that will stay in people’s minds well after the Christmas season is over.” 

Hannah Gardner, Account Manager, Manning Gottlieb OMD adds: “Using data to pinpoint the most festive ‘together moments’ to make our campaign more emotionally resonant is vital in maximising impact at a very cluttered time of year. Building on this by creating our own festive moment with Channel 4 is a fantastic and rare opportunity to help people understand the complexity of loneliness and the importance of the brilliant work Age UK does helping older people across the country.”

Philippe Andre, Independent Films Director: “It was very important for me to make this film for such a great cause. I truly hope people will be moved by the film and become more conscious about this massive problem older people are suffering from in silence and isolation. My goal was to recreate what is loneliness for older people -  I truly think it will touch the audience.”

Monty Verdi, Executive Creative Director, Drum said: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year. For most people maybe, but our campaign this year highlights that for many lonely older people, it’s just another day. The launch film we’ve created ‘Just Another Day’ will be very different to many of the Christmas ads around this year and certainly won’t follow the traditional formula.”

Rob Ramsey, Partnerships Leader, Channel 4 said: “Partnering with Age UK and Manning Gottlieb OMD to bring Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds to everyone at Christmas is the perfect expression of Channel 4’s desire to work with advertisers to address key societal issues in innovative and engaging ways, whilst delivering an effective and entertaining brand marketing solution.”

[i] 48,1 per cent (approx. 5,686,000).Kantar TNS polling for Age UK, Nov 2017.

[ii] 24.3 per cent (approx. 1,380,000) –this increases to 27.3 per cent among those who have been widowed, divorced orseparated. Kantar TNS polling for Age UK, Nov 2017.

[iii]Approx. 928,000 people aged 65+ (8%)feel lonelier at Christmas time, with 41% of those (approx. 379,000) feelingthat way because they are widowed. Kantar TNS polling for Age UK, Nov 2017 –sample of 2,585 people aged 65+ in the UK. Figures extrapolated by Age UK tonational population using latest ONS Population Estimates.