We have proudly produced a range of pharmaceutical and health films, delivering high-quality, compliant and empathetic content that effectively connects important messages with a particular target audience, take a look! 

CASE STUDY

AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance was a public health information campaign that featured a tombstone and the voice of John Hurt. Aired in 1987 the advert’s message was ‘it’s a deadly disease and there’s no known cure’, it stayed in the minds of viewers due to its terrifying slogan as well as sombre visual imagery. At the time so little was known about the disease – it was spreading significantly and in the words of the agency TBWA who made said advert they had ‘no time to consider offending people it was life and death, we needed people to act and stop it spreading” The tactic was to scare.

Fast forward 40 years and thankfully the horizon looks very different but there is still a lack of knowledge about how much progress has been made in the fight against HIV.

Just a third of Scots are aware that people living with HIV who are on effective treatment cannot pass it on to partners. Just one third (35%) of people in Scotland would be happy to kiss someone living with HIV, despite it being known since the 1980s that HIV can’t be passed on through saliva.And almost half (46%) of people in Scotland would be ashamed to tell other people they were HIV positive. All distressing statistics that demonstrate just how stigmatised the condition HIV remains today.

This new TV and press campaign was about illustrating how an HIV diagnosis has significantly changed, highlighting in the script that by taking medication ‘you can live a healthy, happy life just like anyone else’.

TERRENCE HIGGINS TRUST - STIGMA

Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity partnered with Stand agency in Glasgow to create the campaign from informed Scottish Government funded research.

Stand sent us their poignant script and we knew we wanted to produce the film with Director Stuart Langfield. From the outset, Stuart wanted to bring the emotion to the screen in a way that would resonate quickly given the perimeters of it being a 60” film. He worked with all the actors in the lead up to the shoot day, giving them each a wider back story into their characters lives; stories which were based on real life accounts, so what you see is an intimate and authentic portrayal of people experiencing stigma from their HIV diagnosis. This world building and trust with the actors and Director paid off, as each actor brought a dynamic range of emotions to set that they really had to dial up in a short performance window as we shot it all in a single day.

The film features four powerful depictions of HIV stigma; a father pulling his hand away after his daughter says she’s HIV positive, a nurse putting on a second pair of gloves during a hospital appointment, a young homosexual man isolated as he is spurned from online dating sites for having HIV and an older man experiencing prejudice from his local community due to them knowing of his condition. To create these bruising vignettes over a single day shoot meant we had to work with a small dedicated crew, maximising location coverage and ensuring everyone involved were working to a clear creative directive.

The film concludes with the message that stigma is more harmful than HIV to encourage all of those watching to think about their role in perpetuating stigma and impacting the lives of people living with HIV.

In Stuart’s own words :

"This is a sixty second film about the realities of an HIV positive diagnosis. It leverages a powerful trigger; our societal stigma towards those with HIV often does more harm than the virus itself, in order to seize attention, stir up conversation and ultimately motivate us to learn the facts and change our attitudes. It was captured in a series of visually arresting, emotionally charged scenes. Challenging moments, designed to upend our expectations and trigger a highly empathetic response.”