MND Association's 'Life stripped away': the disease that takes the life you love

The pitch-winning campaign had to bring the Association's brand essence, 'Every day matters', to life and connect audiences with the reality of a disease that can trap an active mind inside an increasingly inactive body.

An MND diagnosis stripping away the life you love: images eroded, eyes left intact — eyes are among the last faculties the disease spares.

A 95-inch film by Merman's Ben Liam Jones follows Jaki, a Brighton singer, from symptoms appearing on her wedding day to her voice-banked voice; Emma Hardy photographed three more contributors; Pablo's studio eroded the images while keeping eyes intact; radio reuses Jaki's banked voice; The Kite Factory handled media.

The campaign launched in October 2026 with no measurable results yet; the association's engagement director says the work is key to sustaining the income growth that funds research and support, built on the finding that the public, once they understand MND, want to help.

Pablo London launched 'Life stripped away', its first brand campaign for the MND Association, with people living with Motor Neurone Disease featuring at every touchpoint. The work shows how an MND diagnosis can strip away the life you love — the Association's brief rooted in its brand essence 'Every day matters' — and connects audiences with a disease that can trap an active mind inside an increasingly inactive body.

Director Ben Liam Jones (Merman Branded) filmed Jaki, a performer and singer from Brighton who first recognised worrying symptoms on her wedding day. Shot in a first-person perspective with Jaki and her husband Steve, now her carer, the 95-inch film honours her voice by moving from an original recording of one of her performances to her voice-banked voice. Photographer Emma Hardy worked with three more contributors — dancehall lover Lorraine, gardener and grandmother Tahira Chaudhry, and former session drummer Steve Williams — keeping each identity at the centre of every image.

Pablo's Design Studio gave the work its signature: the images are manipulated to feel 'stripped away', but each contributor's eyes are kept intact, locking with the viewer's — a device that grants dignity while highlighting that the eyes are one of the last faculties the disease leaves. Radio reuses Jaki's banked voice, and The Kite Factory's media plan paired national press and out-of-home with influencers, podcasts and publications around passion points like gardening, aimed at an active, older audience.

The first-person film perspective was chosen to viscerally connect viewers with how MND crept into Jaki's life, in consultation with her and her carer.

Keeping the eyes intact in eroded images preserves dignity and encodes the disease's clinical reality — losing the body while the eyes remain.

Real contributors rather than actors carry the storytelling: four people living with MND appear across film, photo, radio and press, giving the community a platform to tell their own stories.

The media strategy met audiences inside communities they already trust, amplifying through passion points like gardening and grandparenthood rather than generic charity messaging.

Constraint as compassion: eroding the images but preserving the eyes gives contributors dignity and turns the disease's physiology into the visual idea — the medium enacts the message.

The association's director of engagement, Richard Evans, framed the campaign as a key part of sustaining momentum: income has grown in recent years as high-profile people affected by MND shared their stories, funding more research into new treatments and more support for the community — and the charity wants that sustained for the long term. Ben Kay, founding partner at Pablo, said the work is unapologetically hard-hitting because there is no other way to tell the story of MND's devastation.