Help Great Ormond Street Rid Itself Of The Voices

Great Ormond Street Hospital is, at least in theory, one of the greatest institutions in the country. In 1987 it wasn't doing well (it was probably Margaret Thatcher's fault somehow) - it had no cardiac wing, for a start, and its basic facilities were either out of date, or simply aging beyond use, or both. They were doing what a children's hospital shouldn't be doing: turning kids away. The institution died a little with every kid they sent elsewhere.

Hence the "Wishing Well Appeal", still one of the most ridiculously successful charity appeals in history, raising £54 million in approximately twenty-seven minutes, which was something like £30 million more than they expected or needed. (It was called "Wishing Well" because of the famous one in the grounds, and also as a pun - "Wishing" the kids were "well", d'you see?)

I was actually the poster child at our school for the 1987-88 "Wishing Well Appeal", basically because I owned one of the sweatshirts. A brown one with the gigantic, faintly creepy weeping chalk outline that began as the appeal's mascot and has now become the hospital's logo. Below the unsettling face was a box starkly displaying the appeal slogan, possibly the gloomiest pun ever. In sentence case. Somehow sentence case makes it more powerful. Don't ask me why, I haven't figured it out yet.

If the face was faintly creepy, this is positively sinister, as a disembodied chorus of small children sing a more and more strained chorus of "la la la"s, accompanied by what sounds like a music box constructed by Brian Eno. As they sing, we see the hospital basically having a nervous breakdown. Never has that famous slogan been more chilling than in the profoundly disquieting final shot. First time I saw this, it wasn't until that final shot that I saw what the idea was - it's quite clever really. Also notice that a) "Children" goes as a whole word and b) the singing stops at that precise moment.

This might be a TV version, but I believe this was a cinema ad, what with its length and the film quality. Not to mention the fact that since I uploaded this I stumbled across another version of this which was explicity a cinema ad (rated U, honest) and was basically identical to this bar two minor points: for some reason, instead of ending on a long shot, it ended on a freeze-frame just before the "R" left the picture, which was quite distracting. After that it faded through black to a shot of the eerie weeping child above donation details, at which the disembodied voice of Ian Holm suddenly, out of nowhere, said "Please. Donate what you can." If I'd seen that in the cinema as a four year old child it would have put the shits right up me.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Advert
• Commercial
• Ad
• PIF
• public
• information
• film
• Great
• Ormond
• Street
• Hospital
• GOSH
• Wishing
• Well
• Appeal
• Charity
• Children

[cutelittledoll]

Did you get permission from the hospital itself to post this "home made ad?"

[Applemask]

It's their ad.

[emmascribbles]

I live near Alder Hey. They must be fucking spitting.

[Applemask]

The moral of the story is: massive charity pushes involving shirts and a novelty record are better PR than organ harvesting.

[leanneba15]

did anybody else notice at 1:00 something moves in the right window its very freaky! also vry sad add :(

[craigosbournes]

This is sad and whats worst is that the tories are winning again

[nocturne163]

this is really sad !(

hopefully this great Hospital is in a better situation now !

[LetsGetFamous101]

its quite scary actually. init..

[welchm8]

Also we destroyed our sign to make this ad so we'll need a few thousand more quid to put it back up again.

[QfromAirdrie]

I concur about Maggie Thatcher probably being to blame!

[ahmadsalem999]

the video is sadening

[gerryono]

the song sounds like the one from star wars