Aunt Bessie's
A deeply personal campaign for Aunt Bessie’s.
brief
For a new, deeply personal campaign for Aunt Bessie’s called ‘Caring is the hardest thing we do’, Hogarth teamed up with Grey to bring the creative to life.
The idea for the campaign was very close to home for Grey London’s creative director Chris Clarke, who wanted to create an homage to his 'Nanna June' who was certified blind in her teenage years and was famous in his family for her superb Sunday roast dinners.
In what has become the ‘new normal’, the shoot for the campaign was undertaken remotely, with one client attending the shoot and others connecting remotely via Evercast, with all social distancing guidelines followed on set for the actors and crew.
The ad stars Julie Bennett, a visually impaired woman (and also a grandmother) with no prior acting experience, playing June. Julie spent half a day familiarising herself with the set before the ad was filmed.
Once the spot was shot, post-production was also completed entirely remotely. The plan was originally to create a 30” and 20” deliverable, but once the team was in the edit, they realised that there was enough footage to make a 60” edit, which the client loved and agreed to go ahead with.
To evoke the 1990s, where the spot is set, the offline files were sent to a specialist in Belgium, who converted the digital file to film, then back to digital again, to give it an analogue feel. Coupled with the 4:3 format, the spot successfully transports the viewer back to that period.
Gramercy Park Studios, Hogarth’s post-production facility, then completed all sound and colour post to finesse the finished product. The client also decided to add audio description to the final TVC to help reach a visually impaired audience.
As so much good footage was shot, the team decided to air the 60” TVC version of the ad first, along with a number of videos created for social media.