Dentsu Creative China turns Alzheimer's clock-drawing tests into 'Lost in Time' clocks

China has more people living with Alzheimer's than any other country — over 10 million, roughly a quarter of the world's total — and most cases are caught late: the campaign notes 70% of those affected miss early detection. A major reason is that screening tools stayed in hospitals, while stigma around the word '痴呆' kept families from acting. Early detection and intervention could slow the disease's progression by about 15%.

Jian Ai Elderly Charity Center (剪爱公益) and Dentsu Creative China (电通创意), already seven years into a partnership that began with a 2017 'fading font' whose missing strokes evoke memory loss, chose the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) as their medium. They ran the test with hundreds of elderly patients across four Shanghai care organizations and collected drawings from early, middle and late stages. The drawings became functioning clocks and wristwatches — a process that took over three years, with the team teaching itself watchmaking after manufacturers said the distorted faces could never work.

On World Alzheimer's Day the clocks went into Shanghai's Xujiahui metro station for 40 days, courtesy of STDecaux Shanghai (德高申通), as the 'Lost in Time, Found in Love' exhibition. Passers-by saw five abnormal clocks, could wear watch stickers and try real timepieces, and learned what the CDT is. The patients were credited as 'designers'; exhibition labels showed only a name, age and how long the person had been living with the disease. Around World Health Day, limited wristwatches were auctioned on the resale platform Xianyu (闲鱼) — the charity's first auction.

The results showed how far a felt experience can travel: 2.75 million people engaged with the exhibition across 17.9 million visits, 129 million impressions reached 21 million people, 493 press mentions and posts amplified it, and donations to Jian Ai Elderly Charity Center (剪爱公益) rose 106% year on year, with more than 120,000 auction participants. The campaign won a 2024 Cannes Lions Bronze for Outdoor, three LIA 2024 awards, and the 2024 China 4A Creative Awards Grand Prix, and it became a reference case for taking medical screening out of the clinic and into everyday life.