The homeless population in Halifax has more than doubled in the past year, and financial pressures are only becoming more extreme. With those grim facts in hand, the local arm of United Way has launched a new campaign from the perspective of a home itself.

Called “The Doorbell,” the campaign was developed by creative agency Wunder and consists of a 60-second spot shot through a doorbell camera that strongly captures the juxtaposition between the life of an economically comfortable family and that of an unhoused person. Initially conceived in December 2021, the spot was developed over a full year and includes shots from early in the winter season to show a real passage of time.

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“We wanted the scenes in general to come across as slice of life moments happening around the holidays, and not scripted moments filmed over a two-day shoot,” says Stephen Flynn, CD at Wunder. “We realized some of the simplest moments we were able to capture – the package arriving on the doorstep or kids coming home from skating – are just things you do during the holidays. But we were building up to the reveal at the end of someone who doesn’t have a home. And what those initial moments do is showcase the privilege some families have in contrast to that.”

The spot is running across TV, digital and social, the latter two channels where it lives most naturally because it is shot on a doorbell camera – a perspective that is becoming more common across those mediums.

“Doorbell cameras have become so ubiquitous that everyone shares something captured on them on social, and that’s part of why we thought this would be a good idea – not only because of the perspective, but because it’s a visual look people are naturally drawn to,” explains Flynn. “When you see a ring segment on your social feed, you wonder if you’re going to see something crazy happen.”

“You come across these on Reddit and Tiktok and they generally get a good amount of uptake because it almost feels like you’re seeing something you’re not normally supposed to see,” adds Postma. “It’s almost like a look behind the curtain: When you see through someone’s doorbell, it’s almost like you’re getting a glimpse of their world.”

In this case, that glimpse is into the world not only of a family and their friends around the holidays, but also a homeless person who walks through the doorbell camera’s field of vision at the end of the spot – a deliberate juxtaposition, Postma adds, that hammers home the message of the United Way: that support is needed, and more commonly than people might first assume.

The spot will be running through the holiday season.