Child Poverty Action Group, a charity campaigning for an end to child poverty in the U.K., has launched a campaign created by agency Creature London, which includes this TV and cinema spot featuring a child who sees his classmates enjoying a feast in the school lunchroom. Their lunchboxes are overflowing–with mountains of fruit, a tower of hamburgers, endless popcorn and doughnuts appearing like magic–as we hear the song, “Food, Glorious Food” in the background (written by Lionel Bart for the show and film Oliver! and re-recorded by Wake the Town and performed by CW Jones and Aaron Williams).
But when our hero protagonist opens his lunchbox, it is empty. He goes through the pantomime of eating, at which point a supered message appears which reads: “Some kids only have their imaginations to feed them.”
That’s the sad reality facing some 4.2 million children living in poverty in the U.K.
Directed by Adam Berg via production house SMUGGLER, this public service film titled “Imagine” looks to raise awareness of the hunger issue. Ben Middleton, chief creative officer at Creature London, said, “Hearing stories of children eating erasers because they are so hungry is something that I won’t forget anytime soon, but it has been a privilege to spend time in the imagination of children. It is a potent tool that should be reserved only for the magical, marvelous, and downright bizarre, not the mundane.”
Meg Egan, sr. creative at Creature London, said, “This campaign brings a child’s imagination to life in all its wonder and then confronts our audience with the shocking realities one in four children face. It has to be one of the most brilliant and also most brutal campaigns that I have ever worked on here at Creature, and we are incredibly proud of it.”
