Serene or sinister? Sound can often set the scene – in movies and life alike – and the Hearing Foundation of Canada plays that up in its latest PSA TV effort to raise awareness about noise-induced hearing loss.
Three different 30-second spots illustrate how dramatically sound can alter how we perceive a situation. One spot features a woman in the shower. For half of the spot, we hear soothing, non-threatening music. For the other half, we hear menacing, horror-movie music. While visually, the two scenes are identical, the sound completely alters the perception, reinforcing the campaign’s tagline: ‘Half of what you see is what you hear.’
‘It’s a fairly new cause – movies are getting louder, everyone has iPods, etc.,’ explains David Daga, associate CD at Publicis’ Toronto office. ‘You lose your hearing over time…We want to make people aware of the importance of hearing.’
The campaign’s primary target skews younger, towards the plugged-in generation that’s growing up watching THX-infused surround sound movies and listening to loud music with earphones.
The spots are running across Canada in English and French, and aim to supplement ‘Sound Sense,’ an in-school education program currently running in Ontario grade schools, sponsored by the Hearing Foundation of Canada and the Bacou-Dalloz Hearing Safety Group.
client: Heather Ferguson, president, Hearing Foundation of Canada
CDs: Duncan Bruce, Pat Pirisi
associate CD/copywriter: David Daga
associate CD/AD: Matthew Litzinger
account director: Brett McIntosh
producer: Steve Emmens
prodco: Steam
director: Mark Zibert
editor: Greg Edgar, Stealing Time
sound: Vapor
