Alzheimer’s Society has co-created a new national campaign titled The Long Goodbye with people directly affected by dementia, in a bid to raise awareness of the disease.
There are currently 900,000 people living with dementia, a number that is predicted to rise to 1.6 million in the UK by 2040.
Despite it being the UK’s biggest killer, a recent survey revealed that nearly 80% of respondents weren’t aware that one in three people born in the UK today will get dementia.
The new advert was created to portray how dementia devastates the lives of those living with the condition and their loved ones, offering a glimpse into how both carers and people living with the condition can experience multiple losses throughout the disease.
It also hopes to show how the Alzheimer’s Society can help through this process, as the ad sees a Dementia Adviser supporting the family as well as flashes of other Alzheimer’s Society colleagues at the end.
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To capture the experience accurately, the Alzheimer’s Society sought the views of those living through it and the script was written by someone drawing on her own experience, having lost her dad to the disease two years ago.
This idea was then adapted based on the insights of the hundreds of other people who have been affected by dementia.
As part of the campaign Bill Wilson, who sadly lost his wife Jo to dementia in early 2023, shared his story through a video that also aims to shine a light on the realities of dementia.
The ‘Long Goodbye’ is a term used to describe the sense of anticipatory grief that is commonly associated with dementia and the advert seeks to show how grief shows up through the symptoms experienced, the relationships it touches, and where parts of a person’s self can be taken away as the condition progresses.
