Arthritis Research UK has launched The Nation’s Joint Problem campaign and report this week, alongside a creative visual to personify the issue. Social change company Shape History were commissioned by the organisation and PR Agency Headland, to create a three and a half minute social experiment video, as well as further digital creative assets, to address the struggles those living with the condition face.
Playing on the insight that people with arthritis find it difficult to talk to their loved ones about their experiences, the film explores the misconceptions about what arthritis is and how it can impact both the individual and the people around them. Due to the invisibility of the condition, the emotive video centres on Catherine and Phil, both in their twenties and thirties, and gives them the opportunity to discuss openly and honestly the issues they face in their day-to-day life and the pain they experience. Unbeknownst to them, their family listen in to the interview through a TV link, set up in the next room.
“Through our work with Arthritis Research UK, we’ve come to realise that as a society, there is so much about the condition we just don’t understand. We’ve found that through social experiments, we directly place the audience at the heart of the issue, allowing them to engage with the topic and experience the world from someone else’s point of view,” says Mike Buonaiuto, Executive Director of Shape History.
Describing the onset of their condition, the fear of judgement, but also how as a family they overcome the issue, the social experiment hopes to educate audiences that arthritis is a real issue to the nation as a whole and aims to tackle the stigma attached to the invisible disability.
Launching in conjunction with the report – which reveals the current and future impact of two major forms of the condition, osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), on the economy, the NHS as well as families and individuals across the UK – the video personifies the issue and tells the story of two real sufferers. The video has launched across social media channels and has already racked up over 320K views on Facebook alone, with a further 2.7K shares in just two short days. Through the hundreds of comments already received, audiences have already begun to share the own experiences.
The major nationwide campaign launched on the 21st August, and hopes to reveal the true impact of arthritis across society, highlighting that either directly or indirectly, arthritis impacts everyone in the UK.
Links
https://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/
https://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/conditions/osteoarthritis.aspx
http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/conditions/rheumatoid-arthritis.aspx