Ads on the Frontline

I was really excited for the airing of Waddell Media’s ‘Ads on the Frontline’ on BBC1 last Wednesday evening.

It was a really insightful and frank programme about the troubles, and specifically the NI Office’s ads for the confidential helpline that people could call with any information they had on terrorism.

As someone who never experienced the troubles at their worst, I found the programme very interesting, and it was amazing for me to learn more about the reality of NI at that time.

I was given the opportunity to jump in front of the camera last summer and was brought on board by Julie Anne Bailie, who helped develop the ads and was heavily featured in the film herself. Her daughter Laura was my schoolfriend and Julie Anne had just recently generously given me a lot of her time and advice on my own career in television.

It was brilliant to hear Julie Anne’s  insight and reasoning about the development of the ads she was involved in. She gave a reason for every decision made in the development of the ads, everything represented onscreen had psychology and political relevance behind it.

In the programme, myself and other young people around my age who wouldn’t have been aware (if even born) when the ads first aired, all went to Waddell Media and watched the ‘I Wanna Be Like You Dad’ and “Lady” ads. 

We completed some Real Time Response Tests whilst watching the two ads to see if our generation, with a fresh perspective, still found the ads believable and interesting. RTRT works by having the test subjects operate a slider, and to move it left if we found it boring, right if interesting for the first test, and then left for unrealistic and right for believable. We then slid the controls up and down whilst watching, monitoring and recording our interest/believability levels immediately and throughout watching each ad, frame by frame.

I remember watching the ads during filming and, having never seen them before, found them very shocking. They held my interest extremely well throughout and despite my limited knowledge of NI at that time (I was born in July 1998), I found them believable based off stories and conversations with my parents and grandmother about that time.

I was excited to be involved in the project and was really excited to watch the programme and find that I made the final cut. With a clip from my interview and a few flattering closeups of my face and hand on the slider (nails by Jenna Richmond 😂), I’m really buzzing to have been featured in front of the camera (which was a nice change) in an informative, interesting and insightful programme that I, alongside the rest of my family, thoroughly enjoyed.

Check it out on iPlayer!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b3jz80/ads-on-the-frontline