Elliot Harris has helped to create many commercials, but none have generated as much response as the one he worked on for a household cleaning product.
The ad shows a day in the life of a family with two teenage daughters, one of whom is living with a neurological condition. She plays the drums loudly enough torile her sister, who hides her favourite hoodie in order to get her attention. She can't return to school until this important item is in her possession.
The brand, which is designed to make clothes last longer, understands how important certain garments can be to people with the neurological disorder.
No purchasing decision is ever made with the head. It’s always the heart
Harris says that they have never seen a response like this before. People have been thanking us for showing the world how the condition affects families.
The campaign is part of a larger marketing trend in which companies are trying to show that they are decent corporate citizens who understand the lives of consumers and the world they live in.
People will always want good products, but they are becoming more concerned about how these are made and how the brands operate. Advertisers want to make viewers feel like they are part of a larger group. It is obvious that brands ignore it at their peril.
An annual competition in which Channel 4 offers free commercial airtime to a campaign that embraces diversity inspired the idea for the ad. There is an ongoing lack of authentic portrayal and representation of visible and non- visible disabilities.
The team at Havas London worked out a way to remove stains. People with the condition often become attached to their favourite garments. This was important because a brand needs to establish a proper connection with a cause before it can promote it with credibility.
The on-screen relatives of the girl featured in the campaign are part of her family. They helped the director of The King's Speech to piece together a typical day in their lives in order to inform his approach to the project.
The brief from Channel 4 told competitors to focus on representation and portrayal.
"'Portrayal' means getting it right, while'representation' means giving viewers a sense that they could be there," he says. If we couldn't get those two things right, people would wonder why we were talking about it.
It isn't new to inject a large element of realism into advertising. When Dove started featuring ordinary women in its ads, it was the first time that the sector had done this.
Viewers want to be made to feel like people, not consumers, by advertising
Cook says it took a long time for other brands to get more realistic. They are aligning themselves with social causes due to the fact that consumers are more likely to choose and champion a brand that wears its purpose on its sleeves. The creative approach is about connecting with others.
Consumers may be gaining a new appreciation for content that features genuine human emotions in an era when people are concerned about computer-generated material.
We are not far away from a time when all ads could be generated by artificial intelligence. This raises a lot of interesting questions about authenticity and humanness. The more we see fake stuff in other media, the more we want it to be real.
Due to the fact that we are living in troubled times, the demand for content featuring the realities of everyday life has increased. Mick is a creative partner at Harbour and a former chief creative officer at Ogilvy. He thinks that the emotions that brands try to evoke in their ads are more important than ever.
Human emotion is the most powerful way to reach people. Purchasing decisions are never made with the head. "It's always the heart." The threat we find ourselves under is one of the reasons we are seeing a resurgence of real. Our need for human connection and the reassurance that comes with it is what brands are tapping into.
It was always bubbling under the surface. It took a few more campaigns to show the positive reaction from people when companies see them as more than just sources of income. As the cost of living crisis grinds on, the time is right for advertisers to show genuine empathy with consumers, rather than constantly pushing products with no emotional connection or meaning built in.
B2C marketing includes marketing and sales advertising.
