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Tourette’s Association’s awareness campaign asks NZ to ‘please ignore it’
While most awareness campaigns ask for your attention, the latest work from Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand for the Tourette’s Association of New Zealand is screaming for you to ignore it.
To mark Touretteโs Awareness Month (May 15 to June 15), the association launched campaign: โPlease Ignore Itโ, because when it comes to Touretteโs, attention often makes things worse.
It was this simple insight that led the creative team to such an unexpected theme.
Please ignore it
โWhen someone has a tic, the last thing they want is more attention,โ says Emma Henderson, TANZ general manager. โMost people think of Touretteโs as the neurological disorder that makes people swear or shout profanities, which is a form of tic that only impacts 10% of people with Touretteโs. So, when they meet or see someone with other types of tics, theyโre often caught off guard and unsure how to respond.
“What they donโt realise is that drawing focus to the tic โ whether through staring, pointing it out awkwardly, or falling into awkward silences โ can actually increase that personโs stress, making their tics even more frequent or pronounced. Thatโs why weโre giving people one simple piece of advice: please ignore it.โ
Pay cash, not attention
Despite 1 in 100 young Kiwiโs experiencing tics or Touretteโs[1], the syndrome is not considered a disability in New Zealand, meaning it gets zero government funding. Relying solely on grants and donations, the campaign urges New Zealanders to pay cash, not pay attention.
Jordan Sky, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ, says: โPeople with Touretteโs get unwanted attention 12 months of the year. We wanted to draw attention to the fact theyโd rather not be drawing your attention.โ
โThe reactions can be worse than the tics,โ says Henderson. โWhat many people donโt realise is that the staring, laughing, even awkward silences are far more distressing than the condition itself. This campaign helps normalise Touretteโs in a way thatโs empowering, not patronising.โ
Right there in the brief
โItโs great when the creative answer to a brief is right there in the brief,โ says Steve Cochran, Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ. โKnowing people with a tic would prefer us just to ignore it became the campaign idea. An ad asking you to ignore it means you canโt help but pay attention. This irony makes the message all the more potent, helping educate people about Touretteโs and how to behave around it.โ
That tension between asking to be ignored and being impossible to ignore extends into the campaignโs visual language. The campaignโs design reflects the unpredictable, disruptive nature of Touretteโs itself.
Designed in intentionally loud, brash colours, the bold, angular typography takes cues from the jagged pulse-like burst patterns of an EEG brainwave โ evoking the neurological activity behind a tic. The resulting design makes the โPlease Ignore Itโ message feel frenetic as though shifting in volume and intensity, mirroring the involuntary motor and vocal tics that define the condition.
Via TANZโs media partners โ NZME, Mediaworks, LUMO, Go Media, Stuff, oOh! Media and Phantom Billstickers โ the โPlease Ignore Itโ campaign will run across radio, digital, outdoor and social.
[1]https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/Tics/#:~:text=Tics%20are%20sudden%20and%20repetitive,less%20frequently%20than%20in%20childhood.
