The advertising watchdog has rejected more than 200 complaints that an advertising campaign by the Alzheimer’s Society was offensive and caused unjustifiable distress.
The Advertising Standards Authority said today that three television adverts and one radio spot, put out by the charity in March and April, had not breached advertising guidelines.
The ASA said it had received 235 complaints about The Long Goodbye campaign, which returns to a theme of people with dementia “dying” many times as they become unable to do things that used to be normal.
It is relatively rare for adverts to attract this level of complaints. Only 10 adverts had more than 235 complaints in 2023, out of more than 25,000 that people complained about.
One of the television advertisements featured a man, at his mum’s wake, saying: “Mum first died on 12 May 2019 when she couldn’t work out how to prepare her legendary roast anymore.
“She died again when she asked me, her son, what my name was. She died as dad’s rock after 52 years of marriage the day she looked straight through him.
“On 10 March 2024, mum died a final time, surrounded by her family.”
A voiceover then said: “With dementia, you don’t just die once. You die again and again and again.
“Which is why at Alzheimer’s Society we’ll be with you again and again and again.”
The other advertisements featured similar snippets or others along the same themes.
The ASA said the complainants had challenged whether the ads were excessively distressing, offensive and irresponsible.
But the watchdog found that the portrayal of the progression of dementia in the ads was an accurate reflection of one family’s experience and did not breach advertising guidelines.
“While we acknowledged the subject matter could be difficult for members of the wider public to watch and hear, we considered the context of the overall message, as raising awareness and promoting support, was likely to be understood in the context of an important cause,” the ruling says.
“We acknowledged that the ads, and particularly the references to dying ‘again and again and again’ were likely to cause potentially significant distress to some people with Alzheimer’s, particularly to those who had recently been diagnosed.
“However, as referenced above, we considered that the ads presented an accurate and sensitively delivered portrayal of the reality of the disease.”
Alex Hyde-Smith, director of income and engagement at the Alzheimer’s Society, said it was never the charity’s intention to cause distress.
“At every stage of development of ‘The Long Goodbye’, immense care went into ensuring we’re telling this story compassionately and authentically,” he said.
“We’ve heard from a huge number of people who’ve felt this is the first advert that truly represents their dementia experience.
“These people have expressed relief and gratitude for the campaign – finally showing them that many other people have experienced the same, utterly unacceptable levels of pain and struggle that they and their families went through.
“An important debate has begun and, ultimately, we need to keep telling the truth about this devastating illness to ensure dementia gets the long overdue attention it deserves.
“‘The Long Goodbye’ is one experience that many carers feel hasn’t had the exposure it should have had, but we will, of course, continue to share the many different experiences of dementia through our communications.
“We are committed to driving change for the millions of people affected by dementia now and in the future.”