Santa with dementia? Too upsetting for children
IF YOU were left feeling gloomy by last year’s John Lewis Christmas advert – which featured a lonely elderly man on the moon – then you might want to look away now.
Alzheimer’s Research UK today launches one of its most hard-hitting advertisements ever, in which Santa Claus develops dementia and can no longer deliver presents.
Although the advert is a cartoon, made by Wallace and Gromit animators Aardman, it is being shown after the 9pm watershed over fears it will upset children.
The advert centres on a young girl called Freya who has grown up in a world where Santa has stopped visiting youngsters on Christmas Eve because he is suffering from dementia.
Freya journeys to the North Pole to find a despondent Santa staring blankly into the fire, his bright red suit turned to grey after forgetting which gift should go to which child.
But she puts the redundant elves to work as scientists, telling them: “If Santa has a disease, research can find a way to fix it.”
“Santa is an important cultural figure, but the idea that he too could be affected drives home the point that dementia can strike those most special in our lives,” said Hilary Evans, the charity’s chief executive. “We have to be provocative about dementia, to help fight… fatalism around the condition.”