Have you seen the adverts for VA?

dreamdaisy

I have, I have seen three so far and it's good to see the green shoots of a campaign to bring our disease to the public conscience. There are so many charities nowadays, each and every one clamouring for money, and it is refreshing to see that the VA one does not.

I send my congratulations to all involved in the planning, executing and launching of the campaign, these are not easy times and arthritis is not an easy disease to explain or understand but at least a beginning has been made. DD

Airwave!

They have given themselves an uphill struggle trying to bring another new charity to the publics attention and trying to get the charity funded to carry through existing expenditure and reach out to new idears.

dreamdaisy

Firstly, this is not a new charity and secondly, at least they are doing something to raise awareness. Our disease is not dangerous, it does not have the dark glamour of those that are but it wrecks more lives; the general perception and acceptance of 'Oh, they've only got arthritis' needs to be shifted to 'This is a dreadful disease that does dreadful things to people.' At least this is a beginning of that process. DD

Kitty

I have seen them, and I'm delighted to see children included. It might make those who think Arthritis is JUST an old peoples disease sit up and think and hopefully take notice.

dreamdaisy

I hope they are on their way to showing that, as I see it the little boy is the old girl's grandson which is, sadly, stereotypical.

The experience of the disease thus related does not reflect my experience so I hope they will broaden the scope and show that although the disease can limit those limits can be overcome by grit and determination. DD

barbara12

I like the advert, and its gets straight to the point at how awful this disease can be...some people just dont understand how bad it can be..not the aches and pains we were brought up to believe.. :shock:

Slosh

There is one featuring a 10yr old boy with JIA as part of the social media campaign running alongside the tv ads.
On TV there is also one featuring a younger woman who is/was a teacher.
I do know that although they used actors in the tv ads they did a lot of consultation with people living with arthritis, and also their family and friends.

daffy2

今晚在Gogglebox有关。

GraceB

First of all thanks to DD for posting about these. And thanks also to those who've been involved in getting these put together.

I've seen about 3 different VA adverts and I think all are brilliant. It's a good idea as well to link it into the Gogglebox people. In my view the ads demonstrate that you don't have to be elderly to have Arthritis; it can affect anyone of any age, they also show the impact that Arthritis has on people's lives and the fact it's a growing problem.

A lot of people I know are used to the impact that my OA has on my life. They see first-hand my sheer determination, guts and stubbornness when I refuse to allow my OA to rule all of my life. The fact it rules part of it is bad enough! :roll:

GraceB

dreamdaisy

I have seen the Gogglebox-linked one once and thought it a very clever twist: it brought home the mundane reality of our disease. Keep up the good work, VA! DD

Airwave!

I may be the only one that thinks this way but I think it will be an uphill struggle to get a new name into pepoles minds and release the donations. Why use actors? Theres plenty of arthrrs willing to help.

daffy2

Airwave!wrote:

I may be the only one that thinks this way but I think it will be an uphill struggle to get a new name into pepoles minds and release the donations. Why use actors? Theres plenty of arthrrs willing to help.

For the majority of the viewing public it won't be a new name as in a different one for already existing charities(as it is for us), but a snappy name for a charity dealing with something they know virtually nothing about. The existing donation stream(from the two joined charities) will continue, the hope will be that one of the effects of the ad campaign will be further new donations. However I think its purpose is primarily raising awareness.
The question of using actors is always a knotty one. It can be more cost effective as professionals know how to work with directors and cameras and can be expected to turn up and do it in a known time frame. The reality of good days and bad days and limits on stamina etc are better covered by the documentary type approach, such as online videos, and interviews/articles in the press or on the web, which can better accommodate variable schedules.

Slosh

The TV ads use actors but were developed after consultation with arthritis sufferers, the shorter online ones use real suffers.
One reason for using actors would be how hard the filming process is. I was filmed for a 15 sec social media ad. The filming team were fantastic, very considerate of me and they did everything they could to make it as easy as possible.
But, there was a team of 7 people involved, setting up took about an hour and then filming took about 6 hours including a lunch break.
It was very gruelling, and I was exhausted afterwards. This was just filming in my own home, to film in a studio/on location would be so much harder and I think this probably paid a big part in the decision to use actors.