Shining a light for Charity Ads

'We are all born to dream, born to achieve, born to discover... Some are born to be the fastest, the greatest or simply the bestest. But while some are born to grow old and wise, many more will never grow up at all.'

The words in themselves are plain and cliched, if they were the narrative of a careers ad we'd have switched off. But, and this is a credit to our female narrator, she delivers these simple lines with such well-weighted poetic tone and rhythm, managing to stir something really contemplative, a thing which all charity ads hope to achieve but many struggle to do. The combination of this child-like "bestest" yet aspirational dialogue against the positive images of children smiling at role-models sends an optimistic message for me. Rather than ramming a desperate plea down our throats we're almost made to put ourselves in their shoes.

The final bit 'many more will never grow up at all' is very clever; the bulk dialogue builds you up onto a positive plane and then casts all those dreams, all that childhood potential down into doubt. You can't help but feel the cruelty of it and at the same time you don't feel guilt tripped into these feelings.