Telling Jaki's Story: Inside Life Stripped Away

Meet Jaki, a performer and singer from Brighton who experiences the gradual onset of symptoms that ultimately lead to a diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), and whose story is told in the MND Association’s new campaign film.

Life Stripped Away is the debut campaign for the organisation from Pablo London. It is told almost entirely from a first person point of view, making it all the more impactful to the viewer by the end. It delivers an unflinching portrayal of the devastating reality of MND through the lived experience of people affected by it.

It uses recordings of Jaki’s own voice, immersing viewers in the cruel progression of a disease that slowly strips away physical abilities while leaving the mind intact.

The campaign’s central message is that MND relentlessly takes away the lives, passions and independence that define people, yet those living with the disease remain at the heart of the story. By featuring real people with MND across film, photography and audio, the Association aims to build public understanding, drive long-term support, fund research into treatments, and ensure people affected by MND receive the help they need today.

Discussing the creation of the work as Pablo executive creative directors Ray Shaughnessy and Dan Norris.

What was the initial challenge in the pitch set to Pablo by MND Association? 

Shaughnessy: The MND Association came to Pablo through a pitch asking to get more people to consider supporting them. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Motor Neurone Disease is fast and fatal without any cure. A third of people diagnosed with MND die within a year, which made perfect sense of the Association’s brand essence, Every day matters. So really the question became, how do we connect audiences with the brutal reality of a disease, without turning them off, and create an emotional connection strong enough to make people care.

How did the team at Pablo go about learning and understanding the impact of MND and the work of the Association? 

Norris: It was essential to understand the disease from its many angles; medically, emotionally, where it sits in the charity landscape etc. MND Association were of course an incredible resource, not just their own expertise, but with their links to the wider community. We also had real, granular insight in-house because the disease has affected loved-ones and friends of various team members at Pablo. 

Shaughnessy: Our team, led creatively by Matt [Finch] and Mark [Lewis], were exceptional in their diligence. As we assembled all of this information bit by bit, what struck everyone — especially those of us who didn’t have personal experience — was the depth of cruelty of this disease.

Whilst many life-ending conditions are brutal, MND takes from you every day, even locking you inside a body that can’t move, with a mind that’s very active. Even doctors described it as the diagnosis they ‘dreaded’ having to give. The idea of it ‘stripping life away’ was a phrase that came from conversations with community members. Everyone we spoke to implored us to tell people about what this disease does ‘tell them how this ruins lives’. Many tears were shed between us.

Where did the idea for telling Jaki’s story come from? 

Norris: The Association helped find and supported contributors within their community, people who wanted to tell their story rather than us just cold-calling. They held in their minds the idea of what you love being taken away from you, so we were looking for those who had some kind of focus, gardening or football, say. Whilst there is no story that trumps another, Jaki being both a performer and a writer, gave us the backbone to our storytelling. It was a real moment when we saw Jaki’s home video of her performance in Oliver!. It’s a Fine Life became the bittersweet anthem to her journey and in the most genuine way possible, Jaki co-authored her part in the film.

What inspired the point of view perspective to tell Jaki’s story? 

Shaughnessy: Point of view isn’t a new technique — we know this. But it fitted what we were trying to achieve strategically so well: put yourself in someone else’s position. It asks you to think about what MND would feel like, to become a bystander to your own life, to see your body seemingly fail you. We wanted to elicit that kind of visceral experience and for there to be a level of WTF about what this disease robs you of, which, in the end, is everything.

What did director Ben Liam Jones bring to the film? 

Norris: If anyone hasn’t seen Ben’s Childline work, they should, it’s a bit of work that stays with you because the lead charms you, whilst you also fear for his life. Our project needed a director like Ben who was able to show that kind of nuance. Someone who can show that there is still tenderness in Steve and Jaki’s relationship, that Jaki has a wicked sense of humour, that she’s a woman of talents, but that ultimately, there is a stark reality about what she and Steve have gone through and lost. 

Ben has the ability to tell big stories with great economy of storytelling as well as having the amazing ability to telegraph that he thinks human beings are brilliant. He shot on film too which added some extra poetry. Jaki’s story is already raw, film added beauty and dignity.

Why was it important to create a charity campaign that was different from the norm? 

Norris: It’s important to create different work for any client, but the holy grail was to create a real connection between the viewer and Jaki. With so many people affected, it would’ve been easy to fall into a montage ad technique to show many lives. 

But our hunch was that having one story that people have to sit with would be more powerful. This was Jaki’s real story, one of a brilliant performer who first noticed symptoms on her wedding day, to a bed-bound woman using eye-gaze technology to communicate. We hoped that keeping present the extent of what she’s lost would feel arresting and different.

What challenges did that ambition bring? 

Shaughnessy: MND is a hard condition to face up to the realities of to. It is hard to sugar-coat what it does. But we also knew that for people to understand the cruelty of it, we’d have to show the cruelty of it. It’s impossible not to. That was incredibly sensitive and why the extent of the consultation we did was vital. 

It’s hard hitting in its impact - what lines do you have to walk when developing such a campaign? 

Norris: The term ‘sadvertising’ haunted us, so we did a lot of soul-searching around making sure that Jaki’s vibrancy was present and we didn’t sloppily press people’s sympathy buttons. Her actual story, voice and video footage all come from her, we think that people feel that. Knowing that every part of the campaign was user-led, keeps us honest in our story-telling. Nothing is made up, this is people’s lived reality.

This work is some of the most collaborative we’ve ever made, and even if you don’t know all of that when you see the work, that we do, is incredibly important.