The Long Goodbye: the Alzheimers Society Campaign

Seeing my mother as having died while her body continues to move is certainly how my brother copes with the state she's degraded to; my father and I both have our own takes, but we have no problem with him coping with it that way. That said, I don't think the multiple deaths idea would appeal to him at all. My father, who's a humanist celebrant (as was she) and talks to people about grief as a semi-professional activity, would find it quite offensive, I think (I'm not going to ask). I think it's ill-judged.

If it's how some people see it in the case of the person close to them, that's their right, but I don't think it's a good choice for AS to make it their message. They could have shown people each giving their own way of seeing it, each with their own take, and then I think very few people would have been offended.

The AS ad is sadly quite an accurate description of the situation a close friend of mine finds themselves in with their parents, who have been suffering from Alzheimer’s for nearly a decade and for some time now couldn’t be said to be really with us mentally any more. My friend and their siblings feel like they have done a lot of their mourning already and are just waiting for the inevitable at this point.

At the same time, when the disease first started to affect them and they were diagnosed, this ad would have been incredibly distressing for them.

From a creative perspective, this really does feel like they latched onto a quote around "it's like they die over and over" or similar. Impactful but lacks tact. Would we refer to physical injury or disability as "my dad was a great skier, then he lost his legs... It's like he died" seems a bit shallow?

I don't have a lot of direct experience with dementia but I have a had a Grandma who suffered with it... Yes it was sad, but from my perspective it was just a change, she was just different. Not dead.

Unfortunately marketing is pretty gross and the agency that developed this campaign will probably count it as successful as it has had a large reaction.

I look after my mum who's got dementia. My dad also died with dementia.

I am not very sensitive regarding most things dementia, it's a thing that people make jokes about and I tend to be of the attitude that people make jokes about everything and it'd be shitty to take offense just because it's personal to me, blah blah blah.

But this advert fucks me off, it's on all the time on stations my mum will watch, she doesn't know she has dementia so the advert doesn't bother her but it does actually really bother me, and makes me wonder whether I've got it "wrong".

Stating the obvious but it's a really horrible illness. I feel that the narrative about how awful it is being a carer for someone with dementia to be incredibly depressing, also people's resilience to the idea that as much as I wish I didn't have to, bringing or observing any moment of joy, no matter how small, feels very worthwhile to me and for my own mental health that is my focus. I know it's going to get worse but at the moment she does forget my name, can't walk or go to the toilet or eat, she thinks I'm someone else and the fucking refrain from that advert about the person dying every time they don't remember their name, or perform any other demented behaviour can get in the fucking bin.

All that said, obviously a powerful advert, if it raises money and helps with future progress then great, I guess I'm just not quite as peace with my mum's situation as I'd like to be