Charities chuck out the clichés

Charity campaigns can often rely on imagery that’s meant to tug on heartstrings to persuade us to part with our pennies. But the following three have impressed us by moving away from clichés and embracing creative techniques, non-traditional media and shock tactics. Leo Burnett has created a new campaign to highlight the work done by UK housing charity Shelter. It depicts flimsy housing as a house of cards, while a voiceover reveals that 75,000 homes will be repossessed this year. Viewed as if from a train window to Videotape by Radiohead, the houses start to collapse (see picture, opposite). 500 posters on the London Underground, online and direct mail back up the TV spot, which can be viewed on Shelter’s website. http://england.shelter.org.uk/The children's charity NSPCC-funded helpline ChildLine is showing an understanding of Web 2.0 that puts shame in the game of many youth brands. The charity is teaming up with T4, the youth programming segment of UK terrestrial Channel 4, on an online show called Headspace. The collaboration invites ideas from under 18s about what really matters to them. It’s the latest creative concept from Idea, a virtual creative agency for ChildLine which encourages children to come up with creative solutions to their problems. First launched in early December, the website is going from strength to strength, with ‘offices’ on youth hang-out sites like Bebo, Habbo and Piczo. The NSPCC is working with digital agency iCrossing to monitor the effectiveness of the campaign on social networking sites and other online media. The site runs until the end of the school year. http://www.idea.me.uk/

Finally, are you feeling pasty? Then top up your tan without leaving your desk thanks to Computer Tan. Its revolutionary technology will have you bronzed and beach-ready in just five minutes! Users can access their first tanning session via www.computertan.com where they’re presented with the UV tubes on sun-beds. But instead of a dose of sunshine, they receive a harsh jolt of reality: stomach-turning pictures of skin cancers and the sobering fact that five people a day die from skin cancer. Users can then click through to the Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity, where they can learn more about the risks of exposure to the sun and how they can best protect themselves. Hats off to McCann Erickson for a spoof that’s eerily persuasive and spot-on for the young target it’s trying to hit. http://www.skcin.org/