Throughout May, as part of ALS Awareness Month, the campaign highlights what life is like having ALS, focusing on the lives of three families.
MMB and Sanctuary Content have launched a new public awareness campaign for the ALS Association to drawing attention the real-life impacts of the disease.
The campaign centers on the lives of three real families living with ALS.
The project was shot in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Ohio. The campaign includes three short films with real-life scenarios of the individuals with ALS.
This project was incredibly important to us. ALS is such a mean-spirited disease and we haven’t seen that reality conveyed often enough,” MMB ECD Travis Robertson says.
“Aside from the obvious physical implications, there are emotional implications to ALS that trickle down through the entire family circle. These spotsseek to capture that in a way that is both cinematic and brutally self-aware.”
One spot putsthe focus on a woman’s desire to retain her femininity, despite her body’s deterioration.
A second film captures a married couple’sstruggle to show affection amidst the grips of complete paralysis.
And a third film paints a haunting parental metaphor using the beloved children’s book “Goodnight Moon.”
“ALS is a devastating and cruel disease that takes away everything - the ability to walk, to talk, to breathe," ALS Association CEO and president Calaneet Balas says.
By showing people an honest look at the stakes families living with the disease face every day, we hope to encourage them to join our fight for better treatments and a cure."
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death within five years of diagnosis.
