Grey London created a PSA encouraging parents to teach their children to dial 999 (the British equivalent of 911) in case of an emergency for parenting website Mumsnet.
The PSA, which was supported by the British Red Cross, uses audio from a real emergency call in which 5-year-old Elleemae Addison saved her mother Loretta by calling for help when she had an epileptic seizure. In the PSA, the audio from the phone call is played over home video footage of the Addisons. The combination is powerful, with the footage driving home what was at stake as Elleemae made that call to save her mother, making the PSA pretty impossible to ignore or forget.
“Ads are glossy and distant. How we record our lives is awkward, beautiful, and constantly changing,” Grey London chairman and chief creative officer Nils Leonard told Adweek. “The black holes, mixed media, low resolution, distortion and awkward crops are the canvas of our real lives, and the craft leveraged here was all in service of amplifying this incredible phone call with as much emotion as possible.”