Powerful New Prince's Trust Ad Shows the 'Parallel Lives' Young People Could've Led

Today sees the launch of The Prince’s Trust’s new ‘Parallel Lives’ campaign, which illustrates the life-changing impact the youth charity’s work has had on generations of young lives across the UK since it was founded 40 years ago.

The campaign, designed by CHI&Partners celebrates The Prince’s Trust’s 40th anniversary. It aims to increase support and in turn raise funds for the charity so it can continue to help thousands of vulnerable young people to develop the confidence and skills they need to make a good life for themselves.

The ads all feature a mirrored world, with one side showing a young person doing well and the other showing the ‘parallel life’ they could have ended up with if The Prince’s Trust hadn’t been there to support them. The ads tackle a range of issues that affect many of the young people supported by The Trust, including homelessness, abuse and being in trouble with the law.

The lead ad, which will run in cinemas and TV across the UK, depicts the life of a typical young person The Prince’s Trust helps. Directed by Miles Jay through Smuggler, the spot uses a mirrored-image technique, showing the same young woman prepare for her evening in two different scenarios. At first glance, the mirrored lives are very similar, but as the ad unfolds, we see the stark and troubling differences in this young woman’s story.

Paul Brown, Director of Marketing and Communications at The Prince’s Trust, said: “The idea behind this campaign is to give people a sense of the incredible impact The Prince’s Trust has had on generations of young lives, but also why it is still vitally important they support us as we look to the future. By showing the flip side of what could happen to vulnerable young people who don’t get the right support when they need it most, we hope to make people stop and think about how they might be able to support our cause.”

Sarah Golding, CEO of CHI&Partners, said: “CHI&Partners is privileged to have been the creative partner of The Prince’s Trust for more than ten years – and it’s been a real delight to work on this campaign, celebrating 40 years of changed lives thanks to the Trust. We hope it will lead to increased support for many more young lives over the next 40 years.”

Danny Hunt, Creative Director at CHI&Partners, said: “All too often, disadvantaged young people sadly believe they only have one road to go down in life. But The Prince’s Trust has shown nearly a million people a new path in life; a brighter future. In ‘Parallel Lives’, we wanted to show those two possible futures running in parallel, using a mirrored technique to really demonstrate how different those 825,000 lives could have been.”