Why is this Great Ad Great? #3

To tell a story and make it heart-rending is tough. In ninety seconds even harder. But to achieve this using just a single question – “What time shall we leave tomorrow?” – is extraordinary. The first time I saw this commercial from the Alzheimer’s Society I couldn’t help but shed a tear. I’ve watched it several times since and the result has been the same. It’s one of those rare examples of advertising where everything – the script, the performance, the direction, the music – comes together with devastating effect.

Let’s begin with that script.

“What time shall we leave tomorrow?”

It’s an innocuous enough question. The kind of quotidian question a couple will ask each other countless times during a lifetime together. And the response, “I think about eight,” is also unremarkable. Where this couple are actually going tomorrow is immaterial, as we shall soon see. In this first exchange the husband seeks his wife’s validation – “What do you reckon?” – unaware that it is only a matter of time before he will be making the decisions for both of them.

The next time the wife asks the same question, later in the day, after a good humoured trip out in the rain, the husband is puzzled, “I told you, eight.” The third time he’s irritated. We know this not just from his delivery but the subtle reorientation of the syntax to the more emphatic, “We’re leaving at eight, Jane.”

And then, devastatingly, there is the fourth and final time the wife asks the question. The husband’s response is much slower to come, his pause telling. There’s a hiatus in the music, a cut to a close up of him holding her hand, and the dreadful realisation for him – and us – that this isn’t just forgetfulness, but the first signs of dementia.

By using this structural device of repetition, the writers are able to tell the most important part of this story with very little dialogue. We understand the easy familiarity of this couple born of decades of being together, just as we understand the profound impact of the discovery that their relationship is about to change.

To focus just on the script though, would be to do a disservice to Billy Boyd Cape’s direction, which is flawless. The life of the couple is depicted with the kind of apparently effortless authenticity that takes a lot of work: the palette, costume, location, lighting and camerawork have just the right balance between feeling real and having the requisite cinematic polish to lead your eye. Neither documentary nor drama, the feel is somewhere in between.

Note the use of the close ups of hands: a motif throughout which tells us something each time it’s used. There is the husband’s hand pushing himself up off the bed: he’s not getting any younger himself. Then there’s his gentle touch, brushing his wife’s shoulder, showing the kind of understated affection that exists between the two of them. There’s the gorgeous shot of the wife’s fingers peeling a spiral of orange peel in a way that one imagines she’s always peeled an orange. Then her fingers again, this time on the piano keys, playing the music that underscores the commercial in a subtle but smart touch. And his fingers behind his back while she plays – are they moving in time to the music or revealing a growing agitation on his part that all is not quite right? Finally the moment in bed where they hold hands, their love encapsulated by this, the simplest, most intuitive of all gestures.

And then there’s the performance.

This film wouldn’t be able to pluck the heartstrings as plangently as it does without the subtlety in the acting of the husband and wife. Her hurt and bafflement at the husband’s irritation at having to repeat the question a third time see her almost visibly flinch, as if she becomes smaller in that moment. And when she asks the question a final time there’s a confusion beneath her blankness, as if she’s aware that something is not quite right but can’t put her finger on it. The husband’s emotions are played out with equal refinement. His look at the end when the truth hits him is heart-breaking.

Diagnosis rates for Alzheimer’s are at a five year low, with tens of thousands of people in the UK living with undiagnosed dementia. This number is driven by the misperception that symptoms like memory loss are a sign of normal ageing. I have no doubt that this brilliant example of the craft of film making, if seen by enough people, will change that situation for the better.

Brand - Alzheimer’s Society

Marcomms Director - Chris Gottlieb

Brand marketing - Harriet Foxwell

Senior Marketing Manager - Jack Allen

Agency - New Commercial Arts

Snr Creative - Ian Heartfield

Creatives - Nici Hofer, Kenny Meek, Mary Johansen

Producer - Lucie Georgeson

Production Company - Academy Films

Director - Billy Boyd Cape

Producer - Gemma Priggen

DOP - Molly Manning Walker

Prod Design - Luke Moran-Morris

Post

Editor - Ellie Johnson

Colourist -  Simone Grattarola

Music - Joel Hartman

Sound Design - Henning Knoepfel

Music company - Soundtree Music