'Offensive' Alzheimer’s and Verisure ads get the all-clear

The advertising watchdog has cleared two controversial ad campaigns, for both the Alzheimer’s Society and alarm company Verisure, despite a combined 269 complaints from consumers that both were “offensive and irresponsible”.

The Alzheimer’s Society ads, created by New Commercial Arts, comprised three TV ads and one radio spot which ran in March and April this year.

The first TV ad featured a man talking at his mum’s wake, who said: “Mum first died on the 12th of May 2019 when she couldn’t work out how to prepare her legendary roast anymore.

“The style icon of the Covington estate. Mum died as a fashionista the day she couldn’t get dressed into her colourful outfits. Some of the outfits we will all be glad to see the back of.

“She died as the queen of Christmas when she refused to have dinner with the family. She died again when she asked me, her son, what my name was. She died as dad’s rock after 52 years of marriage the day she looked straight through him. On the 10th of March 2024 mum died a final time, surrounded by her family.”

A voice-over then said: “With dementia, you don’t just die once. You die again and again and again. Which is why at Alzheimer’s Society we’ll be with you again and again and again.”

Two other TV ads were shortened versions of the first ad, while the radio ad featured similar content.

However, 235 consumers felt so strongly about the campaign that they rifled off complainants to the Advertising Standards Authority, challenging whether the ads were excessively distressing, offensive and irresponsible.

In response to the ASA investigation, the charity said it was conscious that a dementia campaign would be “sensitive and potentially challenging for some audiences”, adding that it “approached all aspects of the campaign with due care”.

The Alzheimer’s Society believed it was “vitally important” to convey the core message of the ads, adding that it was not helpful to “shy away from highlighting the tough reality” of dementia. The script was written by someone who had lost their father to Alzheimer’s 18 months previously, and so had personal experience of “the long goodbye”.

The ASA said that the ads were likely to resonate strongly with those living with or caring for someone with dementia and could cause a significant emotional impact with a wider audience.

While it acknowledged that the ads, and particularly the references to dying “again and again and again” were likely to cause distress to some people with Alzheimer’s, it considered the ads presented an “accurate and sensitively delivered portrayal of the reality of the disease” and that “any distress caused was justified by the ads’ messages”.

Clearing the ads to continue running, the ASA added: “For these reasons we concluded that the ads were not irresponsible, did not cause serious or widespread offence, and did not cause unjustifiable distress.”

Meanwhile, the watchdog has also given the green light to a Verisure ad campaign, featuring Strictly Come Dancing, One Show and Your Home Made Perfect star Angela Scanlon, which was recently the subject of a Decision Marketing Creative Review, receiving a paltry score of 2 out of 10.

In what was the first activity by Brothers & Sisters, the Irish presenter was seen sitting opposite her neighbour, a rather sad, nerdy looking bloke, who quite possibly was supposed to have special needs but most definitely had just been burgled.

Scanlon then suggested that if burglars were after even this man’s posessions, everyone should be worried and should get a Verisure alarm sharpish.

The ad sparked 34 complaints to the ASA – on the gorunds that it was “offensive and irresponsible”- including one from a Decision Marketing reader.

However, although the ASA has yet to publish its findings, our reader has been informed that the ad has been cleared as the watchdog felt it was simply “light-hearted ribbing” between neighbours.

Verisure has yet to comment on the findings, but it appears the ad has now been ditched in favour of one featuring Scanlon with a dog.