If you need convincing about the urgency to improve education and health for Indigenous Australians, just ask Jen.
Meet Jen. In her life she is five times more likely than the average Australian to contract an ear infection that will severely affect her ability to learn.
Jen’s life expectancy is nine years less than many of her classmates and she has a far greater risk of developing diabetes or committing suicide.
In this clever and confronting spot, Jen looks like an ordinary Australian Caucasian girl until she pulls away her face and you see that she is an ordinary Indigenous Australian girl.
Herein lies the power of the launch campaign, by ad agency KWP!, for the new NGO Bridging the Gap Foundation.
The simple, yet powerful spot, illustrates how disadvantaged Indigenous Australians are from non-Indigenous Australians and the urgent need to bridge the gap on health and education outcomes.
The foundation aims to raise awareness and funds to address these issues and is collaboration between Menzies School of Health Research and Charles Darwin University.
“The lack of parity in health and opportunity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians struck our team hard,” KWP! Partner and joint managing director David O’Loughlin said. “We felt that this great shame needed to be exposed in the most powerful way for all Australians to understand the unacceptable nature of this problem.
“In choosing to directly compare the hope and innocence of two young girls, both full of potential, one’s future under threat, we could expose the truth of this undeniable stain on our society.
He continues: “We hope this powerful portrait will stop people, make them consider the circumstances and raise awareness of what the foundation is trying to achieve.”
Jen hopes so as well.
