Alzheimer affects more than 55 million people worldwide, according to WHO, and early detection can delay its progression, improve quality of life and facilitate family, clinical and legal planning.
In this context, “Check, Mate” is the campaign launched by Voices of Alzheimer’s who wants to help normalize cognitive tests as part of preventive care from 65 years.
A board, two friends and a play that does not arrive. Thus begins “Check, Mate”, created from the animation technique and that uses chess as a conductive thread to narrate one of the most difficult moments in the lives of many people: the beginning of cognitive deterioration.
The viewer attends the bewilderment of one of the characters, intuiting that something is not doing well
The piece, created Pro Bono by the McKinney agency next to the Nathan Love animation studio and produced by Cylnd Studios, seeks to focus on the importance of the early detection of Alzheimer’s. And he does it with the emotional depth that this topic demands, through an intimate and visually powerful history. The campaign shows how a simple gesture – a game of chess among friends – can be the key to identifying the first symptoms of this disease.
His animation in mixed technique recreates the daily ritual of two chess companions who meet as always. But the viewer attends the bewilderment of one of the characters that, little by little, intuits that something is not going well in the memory of his friend. And it is precisely that suspicion that drives you to act.
The campaign thus transmits a clear message: early detection begins many times at home, with whom they know us best. Chess, strategy symbol, memory and mental connection, becomes here into the human link that can be decisive to light the first alarms.
The campaign premiered coinciding with World Alzheimer’s Day, on September 21, and arrives after the publication of new studies that demonstrate how periodic cognitive tests can improve the clinical results and quality of life of patients. With new therapies approved by the FDA that allow to slow down the progress of the disease if detected in time, prevention becomes more important than ever.
From Voices of Alzheimer’s explain that one of its main objectives is to promote regular memory tests from the age of 65, a habit still little widespread but with high impact.
“Alzheimer’s disease not only erases memories: transforms relationships, interrupts plans and redraws everyday life”they point out from the organization. “That’s why we want to start conversations. That people wonder: when was the last time I talked to my doctor about my memory?”
