An advertisement for children’s charity Barnardo’s that aims to raise awareness of domestic child abuse seems to have hit a raw nerve. The ad – which depicts a young girl caught in a cycle of violence, underachievement at school and drugs – has led to some 400-plus viewers complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority about the nature of its ostensibly distressing and offensive content.

You only need to watch the ad once to gain an understanding as to why the response was so strong. Yes, the ad is distressing – but what it does manage to do with some success, I would argue – is communicate the underlying message with clarity, which is vital to any campaign with the primary goal of awareness-raising. The ad only airs after 9pm – not a slot ideally placed to be accessible to young children, one of the demographics most likely to be ill-equipped to deal with its content. An issue like child abuse is unpleasant to confront, so why should its treatment in the media be lighthearted? Many of us claim to be virtually desensitised to what we see on our screens. If so, perhaps this ad is an example of when so-called ‘shock tactics’ are necessary if not just.

After a less than compelling advert of animated airport trucks Cadbury have brought back the infamous, drum playing, gorilla in their latest TV advert. The latest ad sees the gorilla playing along to Bonnie Tyler’s hit Total Eclipse of the Heart and is already starting to cause a stir. Although it is a new track the video footage is still exactly the same as the original advert.

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IE know a brilliant ad when we see one and we’re modest enough to admit when we’re impressed by the creative output of another agency. This was definitely the case with Grey London’s ‘Watch Your Own Heart Attack’ TV advert for the British Heart Foundation: http://www.2minutes.org.uk/

Why should IE rate ‘Watch Your Own Heart Attack’ so highly? There are numerous reasons. Maybe it was the ‘meta-advertising’ – the ‘trailers’ strategically broadcast in the run-up to the ad’s airing on August 10 at 9:17pm. Perhaps it was the fact that viewers were denied the option of being an audience, and were projected into the role of a participant at the centre of the action.

Exposure to advertising is so unrelenting that even those ads with charitable intentions are increasingly met with indifference, cynicism and scorn. Despite the obvious big budget, celebrity backing and use of shock tactics that characterises so much charity advertising, ‘Watch Your Own Heart Attack’ is an achievement of which Grey London and British Heart Foundation must be proud. It will be interesting to see if and how ‘Watch Your Heart Attack’ impacts on charity advertising into the future. IE are eager to find out.