Humour to feature in legacy ad campaign

Fundraising | Lucy Harvey | 19 Nov 2008

Humour is going to be used in legacy advertising for the first time in the UK as part of a new campaign by charity consortium Remember A Charity.

Remember A Charity (RAC), which is hosted by the Institute of Fundraising, is producing a series of television commercials which will use humour to raise the subject of legacy giving in a family setting.

It has not yet been decided if the adverts, which will air next spring, will use a well-known character family or unknown actors. Celebrities will not be used as market testing has proved that is not popular with this concept.

The last RAC adverts ran from 2003 until early 2007 and featured former newsreader Michael Buerk (pictured).

‘Light-hearted but serious'

RAC chairman Stephen George told Charity News Alert: "We are going to use humour to break down barriers.

"We want to create a talking point with an advert that is light-hearted but has a serious message.

"People's inability to talk about legacies is one of the reasons why it is hard for us to move into new markets."

He added: "Other barriers we have found to legacy giving are that people think that leaving a gift to charity is not for them, and there is some conflict between their family and the gift.

Changing behaviour

"We are going to show using humour that you can do both. The aim of the campaign is to move quite deliberately from awareness to behaviour change."

George said the use of humour had been tested with some of the RAC membership and had been well received.

"There's always a risk in humour and the subject of death but it is not about death, it is about giving. It's about understanding where that giving sits with a very strong sense of commitment to your family."

Currently £1.8bn is generated from legacies each year, but only 7 per cent of people leave a gift in their will.

Directory: Institute of Fundraising | Remember A Charity

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