TBWA/London to create ‘hidden homeless’ campaign for Crisis
Homelessness charity Crisis has appointed TBWA/London to create a campaign highlighting the plight of the hidden homeless.
TBWA has donated its services free of charge, and although the details have yet to be finalised, the campaign is likely to be outdoor and predominantly in London. TBWA chairman Trevor Beattie is understood to be overseeing the project.
Crisis communications and policy director Julia Crighton, who has worked with TBWA in her previous role as PR manager of the National Canine Defence League, says: “Crisis hasn’t decided what it is doing at the moment, but there’s every chance it will be a poster campaign.”
The charity says TBWA’s appointment does not affect its relationship with direct marketing agency Lion.
Crighton says the tone of the campaign will not be “complicated or intellectual”. She adds: “Crisis wants to talk to a broad audience rather than just MPs and decision makers. It wants to talk to the average British person. [The campaign aims to] get across the message that homelessness and rough sleeping aren’t synonymous. The most acute form of homelessness is rough sleeping, but that doesn’t mean that when they come off the streets it’s all roses.”
Crisis is still negotiating with the larger homelessness charity Shelter over a proposed merger. The deal was expected to be finalised this autumn, but it now looks unlikely that it will occur before the end of the year.
