Do you remember the first time that you learnt about human biology? And I don’t mean in the truly scientific sense, but more like a Year 3 health class. In my case, and most students in Sydney, Australia, we had a puppet giraffe named Happy Healthy Harold tell us fascinating facts such as that our meals took over a day to digest, and that our central nervous system looked like a mess of competing veins and nerves and somehow it all just worked.

When I look a complex piece of machinery, or a fancy new version of technology, the cynic in me always thinks “Wow, that’ll really suck to fix when it breaks down.” But blame my eight-year-old naiveté, when faced with the most intricate system ever ‘invented,’ the human body (thanks big guy!) I never realised how easily and disastrously, we can break down.

The ALS Society provides considerable support for people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease which progressively paralyses the body as upper and lower motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord degenerate. The disease is commonly associated with baseball legend, Lou Gehrig.

The statistics are even more depressing than these ads, if that’s possible – eighty percent of those diagnosed die within two to five years. And it is not the graceful, dignified death that most elderly hope for; it is messy, and painful, where someone can no longer breathe or swallow because their body doesn’t know how to.

The World Health Organisation has predicted this disease to surpass cancer, as the second leading cause of death in Canada, by 2040. So it’s understandable why the ALS Society are desperately seeking a cure.

This ad manipulates the maze concept so that the viewer can truly visualise the internal struggle of a patient. The copy compliments the images perfectly; the series provides an in-depth insight into the sadness of ALS with three photos and a couple of sentences.

There is always pain and suffering associated with death; by the person who passes, the family around them, the friends who shared and celebrated their life. But degenerative diseases, such as ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, take the struggle to a whole new level. These ads highlight the problem beautifully – let’s hope that they can provide a solution.

Advertising Agency: Lowe Roche, Toronto, Canada
VP/Creative Director: Christina Yu
Chief Creative Officer: Geoffrey Roche
Copywriter: Rob Sturch
Art Director: Ryan McNeill
Agency Producer: Helen Dedrick-Williams
Business Director: Amanda Gaspard
Photographer: Russell Monk

Illustrator: Ben Weeks

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