BBC4 All America is a showcase of BBC archive programmes exploring society in the US. As part of the collection they've uploaded the series 'Inside America' profiling 13 American citizens & their professions. One of which is a cracking half hour programme looking at New York Ad executive Steve Frankfurt working at Y&R around 1965. It's a fascinating look into the life of a real Mad Man, who could've been Don Draper.
I'm not normally a fan of Barnardo's advertising. Their previous work has tended to be unremittingly bleak and always seemed more concerned with generating column inches and troubling awards juries.
This new spot, however, is excellent and made me think differently about Barnardo's and the role they play in helping vulnerable children. It completely stood out like a sore thumb in the break that I was watching and stopped me in my tracks.
They have managed to sensitively incorporate a positive message of hope and transformation into this commercial without losing an edge or making it sentimental or unbelievable. It's brilliantly cast, very well acted and directed, tightly edited and the end result is that you come out thinking that Barnardo's really does make a difference and helps children to turn their lives around. This sort of creative approach could have been a disaster in the wrong hands but cloth caps doffed to everyone involved for pulling out all the stops with the execution. Hope it really does the business for them.
