Motor Neurone Disease Association Depicts Its Cruel Reality

Pablo London launches its first brand campaign for the MND Association, ‘Life stripped away’, with those living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) featuring at every touchpoint. The pitch-winning campaign spans a full media approach, showing how an MND diagnosis can strip away the life you love living. With a third of people diagnosed with MND dying within a year, the work brings the Association’s brand essence, ‘Every day matters’, to life—connecting audiences with the brutal reality of a disease that can trap an active mind inside an increasingly inactive body.

Working collaboratively with the Association, four contributors, all people living with MND, were supported to feature throughout the campaign, placing their lives and passions at the forefront of all storytelling. Merman’s award-winning director Ben Liam Jones, a celebrated storyteller, brings the story of Jaki to life in a 95” launch film. A performer and singer from Brighton, Jaki first recognises worrying symptoms on her wedding day, eventually leading to a crushing MND diagnosis. Using a first person perspective, Jones wanted to viscerally connect viewers with how MND crept into Jaki’s life. Consulting with Jaki and her husband Steve, who has become Jaki’s carer, Jones captures the emotional truth of these moments with intimacy and honesty. The film honours Jaki’s own voice throughout by using an original recording from one of her performances, to her current voice-banked voice.

Ben Liam Jones at Merman says: Meeting Jaki, listening to her and helping to tell her story was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I've known Matt and Mark for years and have always loved working with them, but this project felt more special and more important than anything we've done before. The result feels genuinely different from anything I've seen in the charity sector, and I'm incredibly proud to have been part of it.

For the out of home and digital campaign, photographer Emma Hardy worked with three contributors all with diverging passions. Lorraine from London is a dancehall lover, Grandma Tahira Chaudhry from Leeds is a keen gardener and Steve Williams from London is a music producer and former session drummer. Hardy worked with each contributor to capture their different identities and lives, keeping them at the centre of every image. Each person is at a different stage of the disease, but all share the same devastating reality: being increasingly removed from the lives they love.

Emma Hardy said: “I have never - until now - encountered such courage, grace, humour, spirit and brilliance as shown by Tahira, Lorraine & Steve. I wanted to howl for them and their families - everyone so brave and dignified - but more than that I was inspired, and uplifted by their incredible generosity and trust. May a cure be found SOON for this dreadful disease.”

Pablo London’s Design Studio mapped onto the images a striking visual approach. While also incorporating the Association’s newly rebranded identity system, the images are manipulated to achieve the ‘stripped away’ feeling, but crucially, each contributor's eyes are kept intact, locking with the viewer’s. Not only does it give each person dignity, but it highlights how the use of one’s eyes is one of the last faculties you have with MND.

Ray Shaughnessy & Dan Norris, ECDs at Pablo say: “There is a unique cruelty to Motor Neurone Disease. Its fast, savage nature is at total odds with the rich, varied lives that those diagnosed with it. Our creative approach has always been to be both tender and visceral in a truthful way. To those that the Pablo team have met in making this work come to life, from awesome contributors to incredible partners, we cannot thank you enough. And to our client, the MND Association, we are beyond proud to make this work on behalf of what you tirelessly do.

The central idea of ‘Life stripped away’ enabled rich storytelling opportunities in every channel with a media strategy developed by The Kite Factory. Radio once again uses contributor Jaki Jackson, whose banked voice (banked thanks to the Association) allows her to continue to speak. Alongside national press and OOH, we kept passion points like gardening and being a grandparent at the heart of the campaign by partnering with influencers, podcasts and publications that communities already trust. This continues to amplify the campaign message with an active, older audience.”

Ben Kay, Founding Partner at Pablo said; “This campaign is unapologetically hard hitting as I don’t think there is any other way to tell the story about MND and the devastation it causes. Everyone at Pablo has been both humbled and truly inspired by all those involved from the MND community and given genuine hope that the work will contribute to the MND association achieving their ultimate goal of finding a cure for this horrific disease.”

Richard Evans, Director of Engagement at the MND Association says: “Over the last few years, we’ve seen a big increase in our income as a result of high-profile people affected by MND sharing their stories, and this has meant that we have been able to have more impact for our community. We are now able to fund more research into new treatments and give people affected by MND more support in the here and now than ever before, and we need to make sure we can sustain that for the long term.

“This campaign is a key part of how we will do that. What we have learned over the last few years is that when the public understands the reality of MND, they want to do what they can to support people with it. And in keeping with us as a charity that has people affected by MND at the heart of its work, we wanted this campaign to give a platform to people with the disease to tell their stories.”

Credits:

Client: The MND Association

Creative Agency: Pablo

Chief Creative Officer: Dan Watts

Executive Creative Directors: Ray Shaughnessy & Dan Norris

Creative Directors: Mark Lewis & Matt Fitch

Chief Strategy Officer: Mark Sng

Planning: Charlie Snow & Eliza Millett

Head of Account Management: Eve Bui

Account Director: Amie Goldstein

Joint Deputy Head of Creative Production: Demi Osman

Designers: Mark Harrison, Benny Yang, Rebecca Slama,

Artworker: Viren Patel

Executive TV Producer: Sasha Mantel

Senior Producer: Eva McAlpine

Production Company: Merman

Director: Ben Liam Jones

Partner and EP: Spencer Dodd & Siobhan Murphy

Head of Production: Alicia Farren

Director: Ben Liam Jones

Producer: Nick Papworth

Production Manager: Lisa Lake

Production Assistant: Matt Papworth

Director of Photography: Tom Hole

POV Camera Operator: Maiya Rose

1st Assistant Director: Dan Gibling

Production Designer: Tom Gander

Costume Designer: Lydia Kovacs

Costume Assistant: Rae Harrison-Doyle

Hair & Makeup Artist: Joanna Coleman

Photographed by Emma Hardy James @ East

Digital operator - Zoe Salt and James Rawlings

Lighting assistant - Will Edgecombe

Lighting assistant - Jamie Genovese

Lighting assistant and EQ Van Driver - Russell Highton

Make up artist - Anita Keeling

Senior Producer - Sam Haywood

James Mauger - Agent

Edit: TenThree

Editor: Quin Williams

Edit Producer: Lottie Allister Crooke

Audio: String and Tins

Sound Design & Mix - Will Cohen

Audio Producer - Hetti Cook

Additional Sound Design / ADR Recording - Adam Smyth / Kaspar Broyd / Jim Stewart

ADR Performer - Esi Jonuzi

Location Recordist - Adam Hare

Foley - Cobblestone Foley

Oliver! Arrangement / Orchestration - Auburn Jam

Original Composition - Philip Kay at KOM

Music Supervisor - Matt Saunders-Davies / Mike Bamford

Additional Music Production / Supervision - Will Cohen / Adam Smyth

Music supervision:

Music supervision: The Hogan

Music supervisors: Sean Hogan & Ludo Swaniker

Grade & Post production: Black Kite

Colour: Black Kite Studios

Colourist: Rich Fearon

VFX artist: Rob Peacock

Post EP: Tamara Mennell

Post Producer: Phil Brewster