The Fading Font
The Fading Font
Contributors
- Dentsu Aegis Network
- Mcgarrybowen
- iProspect
- Posterscope
- Amplifi
About this initiative
China has the highest number of Alzheimer’s sufferers in the world, but because of the lack of knowledge, very few seek treatment until it is too late. mcgarrybowen China looked to raise awareness of this issue through their creative campaign. They took the one thing that we use to express our feelings and our memories – words - and redesigned it to give people a sense of what it feels like to live with the disease.
SDG 3 Good health and well-being focuses on promoting mental health as this is an area that impacts millions of people but does not receive the attention it deserves. Alzheimer’s in particular touches 35 million people worldwide and has a negative impact on the health and well-being of many families. However, awareness of the disease and its symptoms is still very low.
mcgarrybowen China createdThe Fading Font, which took Chinese characters and made some of the strokes in each character fade away to mimic how Alzheimer’s would take away people’s memories piece by piece.
A library of over 7000 Chinese characters was created. A symbol that can be easily customized and shared. As people used the font, not only did it create awareness but also it gave them a sense of what it would feel like to live with this disease.
On World Alzheimer’s day, mcgarrybowen China launched the font across social media asking people to answer a simple question using the font: “Which memory don’t you want to lose?”
The response was unforgettable. People all across China, opened up their hearts and used the fading font to tell the world what their most precious and personal memories were. Butter APP, one of China’s biggest photo apps, even added the font to their app for people to use. In the end, over 100,000 customs memes created and shared. A total of 138 different brands across China used our font on their own advertising and social posts to help us spread the message. Even some of China’s biggest celebrities used the font to get involved.
The results of the campaign were very positive – it became the No.1 trending topic for 5 consecutive days on Weibo with over 34 million page views, the Fading Font was downloaded and used over 130 thousand times and reached over 2 billion people. It was a campaign you’ll never forget