The Brief

Parkinson’s Disease causes shaking, slowness and rigid limbs. It can make simple, everyday tasks virtually impossible. Once people understand how invasive the disease is, they’re more likely to go on and donate money. So with a limited budget, we needed an idea that generated both empathy and dollars at the same time. We wanted people to pause for a second in their busy days to think about how difficult things would be if they had Parkinson’s Disease. Then donate money to the cause.

Creative Execution

To get people to give, first you have to get them to care. The Skill Testers mimicked Parkinson’s disease, giving players a momentary insight into the all-encompassing difficulties of living with the disease. Critically (in a charity context) the Skill Testers closed the loop between empathy and action. Players learned a little, gave a little.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We hired old-style Skill Testers, the arcade machines where it’s notoriously hard to pick up anything or control the ‘hand’. Then filled them with everyday household objects (litres of milk, toothbrushes, knives and forks, soap, kettles, etc.) and placed them in prominent positions around the city. People who played got a greater appreciation of how tough everyday life is with the disease. And our machines collected their $1 coins to fund Parkinson’s Victoria’s research at the same time.

Results

In the first 12 hours alone over $5000 was collected to help fund the search for a cure. And, perhaps more importantly, thousands of Australians walked away from our machines with a deeper appreciation of the daily struggles faced by sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease.