Walkers have teamed up with Comic Relief and Roman Kemp for its this years festive ad campaign, in bid to get nation to open up this Christmas. Watch the advert below:
Featuring a voiceover from radio presenter and mental wellbeing ambassador Roman Kemp, the ad focuses on the positive impact of talking and humour on mental wellbeing, after its research revealed that amidst the current climate, there’s never been a greater need for the nation to open up.
The ad, which launches on TV on December 1st The brand made this advert after its research found that nearly every other time (38%) a person in Britain says that they’re ‘fine’, they’re not being honest with this being even more so at Christmas with 52% of UK adults admitting they feel extra pressure to be happy during the festive season and pretend everything is ok.
The ad features main character, Larry, at a festive family party to which Larry is accompanied by an emoji, subconsciously displaying what he’s really feeling while Larry wears a brave face across different classic Christmas scenarios with family and friends.
During the final scene of the ad, Larry finds himself in the kitchen with his friend who asks him “how are you?”, to which Larry replies with “I’m fine”. His friend goes on to curiously ask “how are you really?”, to which Larry opens up and the two friends share a laugh with each other over Larry’s Christmas jumper. The scene is curated to dial up on the importance of talking and for others not to take terms like “I’m fine” at face value.
TV and Radio presenter Roman Kemp commented: “As someone who has been open about their own battle with mental health and seen first-hand the devastating consequences of people bottling up their feelings, this is a campaign very close to my heart.
“Christmas is an amazing time of year, but it’s also a very challenging time for a lot of people, so I’m hoping that through this campaign and encouraging people to ban what is undoubtedly the most offensive ‘F***’ word out there, we can help open up the conversation surrounding mental wellbeing and get people having open and honest conversations about how they’re really feeling. Let’s stop saying we’re fine because we think it’s polite, or because we think it’s what the other person wants to hear. Most of the time, if a friend or family member is asking you how you are, they do genuinely want to know because they care.”
Philippa Pennington from Walkers commented: We know that Christmas can be a challenging time for many, and the pressure to appear positive and pretend everything is ‘fine’, even if it’s not, is particularly strong at this time of year. The message of our Christmas campaign – that it can help to open up and talk about your feelings – is so important and we hope to be able to encourage people to talk a little more this festive season. We are proud to see the benefits of our £2 million donation to Comic Relief and mental wellbeing projects and hope we can continue to raise smiles and get the nation talking this Christmas.”
As part of its partnership with Comic Relief, Walkers has also given £2million over the last two years to Comic Relief to support mental wellbeing programmes.
