Alzheimer's Awareness Campaign
#bademantelchallenge
For World Alzheimer’s Day 2023, the German dementia support association Deutsche Demenzhilfe launched a #bademantelchallenge (meaning #BathrobeChallenge in English). With photos taken in bathrobes at unconventional locations, people – young ones in particular – expressed solidarity with those affected by Alzheimer’s and drew attention to scientific research.
Task:
Alzheimer’s remains somewhat of a taboo topic. Grandmas who no longer recognise their grandchildren or fathers roaming the supermarket in their bathrobe do not fit with social norms. People do not talk about them. Together with Deutsche Demenzhilfe, we wanted to use the international awareness month to break this taboo, shift attention to the topic and encourage solidarity with the people affected and their family members.
Idea:
Alzheimer’s means a loss of memory and orientation. Symptoms that are transported by the familiar image of seniors lost and wandering about in their bathrobe. It is exactly this feeling of being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ that we turned into a movement: the bathrobe challenge. We called on everyone in Germany to present themselves in a bathrobe at unconventional locations.
Solution:
Right in time for the start of awareness month in September, we got celebrities and influencers to share photos and videos of themselves in a bathrobe with their fans on Instagram. What was exceptional about this was that all initial participants of our challenge had a credible, highly personal connection to the illness. In their bathrobe post, they nominated their followers – including personalities with just as many followers, of course. And that is how the #bathrobechallenge went viral overnight – and attracted a media wildfire that we fuelled further with an out-of-home flight and high-penetration TV cooperation.