Sky-high inflation, an unprecedented energy crisis, food shortages, strikes and staff shortages across key social care sectors; the cost of living in the UK increased dramatically during 2022, leaving millions of vulnerable older people on fixed incomes struggling financially and emotionally.

With the impacts of COVID-19 and the deepening of the isolation facing this generation still ongoing, the situation for many older people in the UK has got to breaking point.

But older people’s struggle is so often hidden, and pushed aside in our minds by convenient assumptions society makes about older people. We assume they are being looked after by their family, public services, neighbours and are ‘loving later life’.

Age UK needed to break these convenient assumptions by showing the reality of the situation, and reassure the public that they, as the leading charity for older people in the UK, could help. They just needed to be asked.

Music and its abrupt absence are central to the power of this film in helping us break the public’s convenient assumptions that all was well for older people in the UK.

Playing into tropes of ‘happy older life’ with the song ‘Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy’ by The Tams, we drew viewers into thinking they were about to enjoy a film of older people loving life.

The unexpected hard cut of the upbeat song and cheery lyrics creates a dramatic shift in tone. With the music gone, the viewer is left with the stark, painful silence of the situations the older people face.

The lack of music in the second half of the film creates a profound effect, leaving viewers with a sense of longing for the music to return and for some relief of the situation. But by withholding this, we deepen the power of the film’s message.

The campaign’s primarily purpose was to increase brand awareness and understanding of the issue. It's too early for brand tracking results, but the film had a significant and immediate impact for Age UK’s fundraising - a sign of its powerful impact.

In the campaign’s first week, donations increased +122% compared to the week before launch (wow), with the overall value of donations increasing +143%. As part of this, sign-ups for vitally important regular donations grew by +227% wow.

The charity also saw a 68% increase in enquires on how to volunteer and social mentions increased by 56% wow.

After launch, the launch film was picked up and shared organically by key British media sites including the UK’s most visited news website The Daily Mail, and British Instagram account ‘The Archbishop of Banterbury'. This led to over 1.1m additional views of the film and over 1000 comments of shock and outrage.