Living Memories
Brake
Issue 36 | September 2015
Agency
Y&R NZ
Creative Team
CCO / CEO Josh Moore Creative Director Scott Henderson Seymour Pope Senior Art Director Lisa Dupre Designers James Wendelborn Kate Whitley National Ideas Director Jason Wells
Production Team
Head Producer Christina Hazard Digital Production Company Weta Digital Executive Digital Producer Bruce Murray Digital Producer Pat Co Head of Motion Graphics Michael Frogley
Other Credits
General Manager Grant Maxwell Account Director Claire Dooney Account Manager Chelsea Dowling Senior Media Planner Kylee Davidson-Corrin Brake Development Director Caroline Perry Forensic Specialist Kevin Darch
Date
May 2015
Background
On average each week in New Zealand, five families are told the devastating news that someone they love is someone they will never see again. Their families don't just lose a loved one. They lose everything that person could have become.
As part of National Road Safety Week, Brake (a road safety charity) set out to encourage New Zealanders to think about the potential life-long cost of their decisions on the road.
Idea
Five families volunteered to be part of the project. Each family worked with Kevin Darch, a forensic age-progression specialist, and the digital artists at Weta Digital, to help create a portrait of what their child, lost years before in a terrible crash, would look like today.
Details like eyelashes, eyebrows, skin tone and texture were given time and trouble.
The story was then broadcast on the country's highest-rating current affairs show, 'Sunday'. It instantly sparked a reaction on 'Sunday's' Facebook page, which was then picked up by the wider media.
The Living Memories project also extended into print, social, online and outdoor media to amplify the reach and impact of these moving portraits.
This is Nayan as he might look today as a nine year-old, had he not been killed in a car accident when he was four.
Results
Unknown.
Our Thoughts
The human imagination is remarkable. We can look at two photos of Nayan, the toddler ?aged 4 and the boy aged 9, and fill in the gap in between of a life lived to the full, if it had been given the chance. That’s why the idea is so strong. It doesn’t instruct or lecture, it doesn’t wag a finger or preach. It lets the imagination do it all and that’s when you want to weep.