This right here is the day job. Doing the creative thing as ECD of AML. The life job, among other things, is being a dad to a 16-year-old son with Tourette’s.
Over the past few months, these two usually unconnected jobs have collided in what some might say is a massively positive way in the form of a self-initiated awareness campaign that’s just been out there in the world.
But others – by which I mean me – might say that although there’s a modicum of pride for having got it over the line, now that it’s done, it feels like a disappointment. Why do I feel so deflated?
The son in question is an awesome kid who’s doing great. It’s a wonder that he is because man does he have a lot to contend with. Far too much to go into here, so I’ll paint you a vastly inadequate picture in just one line: sometimes he tics so much, he bleeds.
Everyone’s heard of Tourette’s but no one understands it. So a little over a year ago I wrote to the CEO of UK charity Tourette’s Action to offer a bit of help. I make ads, I told her. I recently wrote one that saved lives, I said. I care about Tourette’s, I understand the issues better than any other ad person in the world, I can make a difference. Happily, she appointed us.
After a whole heap of hard graft from my team, our campaign – #TourettesHurts – launched a couple of months back. A beautiful, powerful, memorable series of posters aiming to help people understand the condition by dramatising some of its myriad symptoms in a way that reframes it completely.
Kind people and organisations donated their time, talent and media space to give the campaign power and tentacles. It was endorsed by several celebrities including actor Eddie Marsan (if you don’t know the name, you definitely know the face).
It was even picked up by the BBC, landing on Breakfast and the One O’clock News. The website traffic numbers are off the charts – the charity’s never seen anything like it. Given the tight budget, the outcome was immense. I should be breakdancing in the street.
But instead, I’m furious.
Furious that the moment has come and gone. That the campaign isn’t continuing to change minds. That everyone I ever talk to will still think Tourette’s is only about swearing – how hilarious! – and they’ll likely mock it at any opportunity.
Livid that it didn’t make it onto ITV, Sky, Reddit, the election agenda, to reach millions more and create the pressure needed to improve medical provision for the condition, which is scandalously poor.
Fuming that I know, I just know, that you personally, as you read this right now, are only just hearing about it. Straight from the horse’s mouth, rather than having seen it out there and been affected by its power, because you always happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
None of this is fair, and it makes me want to scream at the sky. Every creative in the universe wants their ads to get noticed, to provoke action, to stick forever, and it smarts if they don’t – but passion projects like this are different.
It’s not just disappointing when they don’t land universally – it’s painful and stressful in a unique way, because you care more than anything about the project.
You know that fewer lives will be improved, that less money will be raised, that the subject you want to shine a light on remains an invisible drop in a vast, dark, raging ocean on a far-distant planet.
It’s not just that your ads haven’t made the impact you wanted – it’s that your heart and your soul and your pride and your dreams have been crushed.
We did a good thing, of course we did. But it’s impossible to be satisfied. So if you’re planning a passion project, whatever it’s for, I celebrate your initiative and will gladly donate a re-post.
But brace yourself. It may not change the world.
To see how our Tourette’s campaign is making an impact, visit Tourette’s Action.
