CREATURE DISCOMFORTS

Meet the people behind the plasticine from Leonard Cheshire Disability’s new ad campaign.

At first glance you might think that plasticine animals have little to do with disability. But with a little imagination, a lot of creativity and the help of some opinionated disabled people, you’ve got a recipe for an eye-catching advertising campaign which aims to help people change the way they see disability.

If you’ve seen the news, read a newspaper, listened to the radio or waited at a bus stop in the last couple of months, you might have spotted the familiar faces of Creature Comforts characters with an unfamiliar twist – disability. And if you’ve not seen the characters out and about, then you’re sure to meet them when they debut in living rooms across the country in a series of television adverts starting in mid-January.

Creature Discomforts is the brainchild of national charity Leonard Cheshire Disability and the company behind Wallace and Gromit, Aardman Animations. This is the first major awareness-raising campaign that the charity has done in some 10 years so – understandably – it aims to make an impact. The charity’s communications director Judith Barnard explains: “We’ve found that there’s a complacency around disability – people like to assume that it’s all sorted. Wherever people go they see signs of accessibility so there’s an assumption that they don’t need to worry about it anymore. We wanted to do something to make people think differently.” The Creature Discomforts campaign aims to do just that by using a familiar format – the Creature Comforts series – to highlight the issues that disabled people face.

A POWERFUL TOOL
Using the voices of real disabled people, Aardman Animation worked together with the charity to create plasticine characters – namely a sausage dog, hedgehog, stick insect, tortoise, slug and bull terrier – to get their message across. “Using the Creature Comforts approach was a very powerful vehicle for communicating with our audiences in a non-confrontational way,” explains Judith. “At the same time, it gave us the opportunity to say some fairly powerful things but with humour and poignancy.”

So what is the message of the campaign? Well, with “Change the way you see disability” on every poster and TV and radio ad, it’s clear that Leonard Cheshire Disability is aiming to change the public’s perception about disabled people – the way they live, the things they enjoy, and the issues they face. “That many people think ‘ooh you’re in a wheelchair, you’re rubbish, you can’t do anything’. A lot of it is ignorance,” says Spud the slug in his TV spot.

BANGERS AND MASH
77-year-old John Marrows is the voice behind Spud. He has MS and uses Leonard Cheshire’s West Street Resource Centre in Chesterfield. John first heard about the campaign when an interviewer turned up at the centre to ask a few questions of him and his friends, including Alex Mihaly who was later turned into Flash the sausage dog (the pair have since become known as Bangers – for the sausage dog – and Mash – for Spud).

The interviewees knew nothing about the campaign at the time, so their performances were completely unscripted. “It all happened very discreetly,” explains Alex. “Apparently they picked six characters out of 160 voices, so when I found out I’d been chosen I was overwhelmed.” Aardman’s Steve Harding-Hill directed the adverts, and he and his team had a few days to trawl through hours of recorded dialogue and find the perfect few lines that could be animated and made into an advert. Steve admits: “It was quite a daunting prospect at first; looking at how we tackle this serious and important issue in a serious but lighthearted manner, without it being patronising or offensive. When we got the interviews back, we started to find the odd little gem and it became apparent how it would work.”

THE MAKING OF
The selected lines, which are spoken by six different disabled people, then had characters and scenarios created around them. “It was quite a quick turnaround on the designs,” says Steve of the time he and his team spent creating sketches and storyboards for each creature – something which took a matter of days on paper but many hours of filming to bring to life in the studio. “They could only shoot about three seconds of footage a day,” explains the charity’s Judith Barnard. “We’ve turned the whole campaign around in about six months which – given the time it takes to do the painstaking animation work – is amazing.”

Once completed, the animations – which will screen on national television from
mid-January to mid-February – were shown to the people who provided their voices. “I quite like hedgehogs so I don’t mind at all,” explains soft-spoken Shiela Morgan, who was turned into Peg the hedgehog. “And I am elderly so I don’t mind being an elderly hedgehog. I always have a blanket on my knees, just like Peg, because your knees get terribly cold in the wheelchair.” The similarities don’t end there – after the animations were completed, it emerged that Alex and his wife used to breed Daschunds just like his character Flash, while the man behind bungee-jumping bull terrier Brian is a bit of a sports fanatic and into hand cycling, basketball and badminton.

NOT A ONE-OFF
Their post-Christmas airing on TV won’t be the only exposure the characters of Creature Discomforts will get. Thanks to the campaign’s amazingly positive reception (with ‘behind the scenes’ footage chalking up hundreds of viewings on the video-sharing website YouTube), Leonard Cheshire Disability and Aardman plan to continue the series, which Judith envisages as at least a three-year campaign. What’s more, the charity hopes to look at a wider range of impairments and speak to young people about the issues they face. This is something Steve is keen to do too: “We can push the issues a bit more, tackle sexuality and those more risqué subjects. Hopefully we’ll do more again and I’d love to be involved so we’ll see.”

There are obviously great plans in place for the campaign’s future, but what about the current campaign? Until the ads seep into public consciousness after being on television, their impact remains to be seen. But everyone involved is hopeful. “It gives us an opportunity to get into conversation with people about disability,” explains Judith, while ad director Steve hopes that “in the short-term it will inspire debate and change attitudes.”

The participants are looking forward to seeing themselves on national television – Kevin Gillespie says he might “get a bit flushed” – and are looking forward to the adverts having a positive impact. “People will be thinking about it and speaking more with disabled people,” explains Sheila, “and realise that disabled people have their own opinions too.” But perhaps sausage dog Alex sums it up best when he says: “It’s trying to get people more aware of disabled people and that they are capable of putting something into society – we’ve all got a part to play so why shouldn’t we try to work in harmony together?”

MEET THE FACES BEHIND THE VOICES

Tim the tortoise
Voiced by Ian Wilding
Cardiff-based Ian has MS. He enjoys going to the shops with his family but has faced physical and attitudinal barriers. “People talk to my wife and not me,” he explains. “People need to think it’s not the wheelchair that’s causing problems – talk to me, not to my position.”

Brian the bull terrier
Voiced by Kevin Gillespie
Kevin has spina bifida. A wheelchair user, he has high hopes for the campaign: “Hopefully it will make people sit up and take note of the access problem,” he says.

Spud the slug
Voiced by John Marrows
John has MS and uses a wheelchair. He lives with his wife and is a very determined individual: “I never believe people who say you can’t do this because you’re disabled.”

Flash the sausage dog
Voiced by Alex Mihaly
A fall at work 25 years ago means Alex has spinal degeneration. He uses the Leonard Cheshire Resource Centre in Chesterfield where he plays cards and shops online. He believes the centre has allowed him to stay in his own home: “Without it, I’d be in a nursing home,” he says. “In your own home you’ve got independence and you can go where you want when you want.”

Slim the stick insect
Voiced by Irving Mellor
Irving worked in the hotel industry but was forced to give up his job eight years ago due to back problems. He walks with a stick and says: “People should be able to carry on their lives, regardless of whether they are disabled or not.”

Peg the hedgehog
Voiced by Sheila Morgan
Sheila thinks the campaign will make an impact but believes that education about disability needs to start at a young age. “Little children see wheelchairs and they’re fascinated,” she comments. “But when they get to school age I think maybe they get a bit afraid; as many adults are.”

Watch the adverts online at www.creaturediscomforts.org.uk or see them on national TV from mid-January.

January/February 2008