Terminally ill Aussies redefine the ‘Australian Dream’ in powerful UBank film via The Monkeys
UBank has released Home Truths, a new project via The Monkeys, that launches with a provocative film aimed to encourage Australians to reconsider what they believe to be most important in their lives.
Bronnie Ware, a former palliative carer and author of Five Regrets of the Dying, said the advice shared in the film resonated with her after years of caring for the terminally ill: “I’ve never had someone nearing the end of life tell me they wished they’d had a bigger home. It’s always about spending more time with friends and family, and being bold enough to follow your dreams.”
As part of this project, UBank, The Monkeys and Pulse Communications worked with Palliative Care Australia to seek advice and help find the six people featured in the film – sharing the perspective of a group in our community not often voiced in mainstream media.
Says Liz Callaghan, CEO, Palliative Care Australia: “When UBank approached us with this concept we immediately liked it because the project gives a voice to the people we advocate for day in and day out – and that’s not an opportunity they often receive. We hope it inspires Australians to make changes for the better.”
The film, ‘Real Estate Tips from the Terminally Ill’, created by The Monkeys, sees UBank ask six terminally ill patients to share their thoughts on what’s truly most valuable in life, with the aim to encourage all Australians to make positive changes and to define their own ‘Australian Dream’.
The theme of the film is centred on finances and how a bigger house can often lead to more stress, not a better life. Australians have some of the biggest houses in the world and the largest mortgages to match. We also work some of the longest hours and give a huge percentage of our salaries just to meet the repayments.
But is this the life we want to be living?
UBank’s ambition is to have more customers with smaller home loans that comfortably fit their lifestyle, rather than less customers with big debt that are overstretched trying to pay off their loan.
Says Lee Hatton, CEO, UBank: “We are seeing too many people working hard to pay off a home they barely spend any time in, and making difficult compromises rather than enjoying their lives. Our belief is that by borrowing less, you can have a bigger life.”
UBank commissioned research that uncovered more than half of Australian mortgage holders (58 per cent) are putting work over family due to financial strain. This pressure also impacts on the amount of time people can spend in their homes with almost two in three (64pc), wishing they could spend more time in their home.
The project kicked off with PR, led by Pulse Communications, with an appearance on Channel 7’s Sunrise by Bronnie Ware, a former palliative carer and author of Five Regrets of the Dying.
Says Scott Nowell, co-founder and ECD, The Monkeys: “This film calls on the unique clarity and wisdom of people living with terminal illness to force us to rethink what’s really important in our lives. It’s confronting but valuable to ask yourself what the ‘Australian Dream’ actually costs in terms of stress and most importantly, time with your friends and family.”
The Home Truths campaign was planned and bought by Bohemia. The film ‘Real Estate Tips from the Terminally Ill’ is set to air across TV and social and is supported by digital banner ads and behind-the- scenes videos explaining why the interviewees got involved.
Client: UBank
Agency: The Monkeys
Executive Creative Director: Scott Nowell
Senior Art Director: Scott Dettrick
Senior Writer: Andrew Fraser
Director: Mike Hill
Director of Photography: Tristan Milani
Senior Producer: Penny Brown
Production House Producer: Jo Johnston
Production Manager: Jo Messina
PR: Pulse
Media: Bohemia
Post Production: The Butchery/ The Refinery
Executive Producer: Amelia Bromley
Editor: Dan Lee
Colourist: Scott Maclean
Online: Drew Downes
Sound House: SongZu
Executive Producer: Katrina Aquilla
Sound Designer: Simon Kane
29 Comments
Great idea.
F*ck me. As an industry we’ve stooped pretty low over the years in order to sell products. But this sets a new benchmark. Using terminally ill people to sell home loans? No wonder people hate us so much.
Really nice. Good job getting this up.
Got to say, I kind of agree with you.
I really like the film, but I get the feeling that if this wasn’t a paid, scripted segment from a mortgage lender, these people would be telling me to forego the home loan altogether, rent small and cheap, and spend as much time as I can with the people I love.
Got to hand it to the Monkeys, it’s a seriously tough space to be saying something fresh and new in. But I’m not sure I’m buying it that this is the message these people really have for me.
All of that aside, it’s interesting and compelling work. Well done.
Couldn’t they have done something with smashed avocado? Might’ve produced a stronger and less morally reprehensible execution
The dick in the ointment here is, there are no small mortgages anymore. Not unless you’re prepared to live hours and hours away from work, in which case you’ll see even less of your family. Mortgage stress is more a function of a radically overheated property market than a keeping up with the Jones’s.
Agree, it is interesting if not entirely ethical work.
Couldn’t they have done something with smashed avocado? Might’ve produced a stronger and less morally reprehensible execution
i wanted to hate this when i saw the headline but well done, challenging and of the moment
I recall an older Creative once saying, ‘Well this won’t trouble the judges.’
I never really understood the saying until recently sitting on a few juries.
This campaign will ‘trouble the judges’. Is it cashing in, too close to selling out or is it groundbreaking and fresh enough to debate in round two? You can decide for yourself. But a lot of us wish we did work like this and those that don’t write too many comments on this blog.
I gave this a day before commenting – because I think this caliber of work actually deserves a comment.
It’s great. It’s great that a lender is saying borrow less, and it’s great that the agency took it beyond a glib joke into a thought-provoking space.
Imagine the temptation to go comedy with the prop ‘borrow less, live more’ or whatever it was. So many agencies would have done eating-baked-beans-on-toast-on-my-Rose-Bay-balcony type stuff.
You can’t ignore this work. Is it unethical? I don’t know. I don’t know whether these people did the ad because medical costs are high and they really needed the money, or because it was an opportunity to share something meaningful with a large audience.
But I’m going to suspend cynicism for just a moment and say I wish I’d done it.
this is built for awards. And they’ve used terminally ill people to get there.
If this wins effies, then sure where there is proof of success, i can be kinda cool with it.
But If it doesn’t and instead wins nothing but creative ones, then you know that this was a self indulgent low-ball attempt to score easy metal.
Completely non-sensical. The Monkeys and Ubank have disappeared up their own arse and lost all sense of reality.
Sure, we all want to borrow less and live more, but it’s not possible. If you want to buy a house, you have to get a big mortgage. Or live in the middle of nowhere.
Given the people featured I’m probably going to hell for saying this too, but the video is not very emotive either. kind of half-pregnant.
HOLY FUCK. Seriously?
How fucking revolting. I’d love to know where endorsing a mortgage brand/bank fits into most terminal patient’s aspirations.
How fucking revolting. Deplorable.
They could like do pranks where your doctor tells you you don’t have long left and then like do a reveal a couple of weeks later that they were joking and like print the end line on the bottom of the test results.
This is all kind of fucked. How have we got to this?
Does anyone remember the ending of :30seconds?
I think that’s what it was called.
Worth a look.
Feels quite familiar.
Maybe it is time, Campaign Brief like other trade titles starts to ensure transparency with commentary – rather then letting agency trolls hide behind their Windows95 PCs’…
Isn’t the message borrow less? In essence they’re saying don’t saddle yourself with debt.
How is that reprehensible?
It takes a rare kind of agency to handle something like this and get it right. Anyone doubting the ethics of this only has to look to the facts that Palliative Care Australia, and Bronnie Ware, author of 5 regrets of the dying, put their names to this. I won’t lie, the headline had my guard up – but the execution is handled with dignity, humanity and respect. That’s worth applauding in my book.
So a bank exploiting terminally ill people is telling me I should borrow less – because shock/horror there’s more to life than money. In a world where – unless I live in a parallel universe – for a bank, it is all about the money. The terms ‘shareholders’ & ‘profits’ come to mind.
Is anyone honestly gullible enough to actually believe a bank truly wants us to borrow less… ‘anti-advertising’ is sooo edgy these days.
This is not real world, it conflates emotion with message. It’s definitely ad world. it’s an emotive piece so it must be good, a hackneyed approach that piggy backs on human suffering so a bank can profit.
It really, truly stinks.
So u bank sell mortgages. And they asking you to borrow less. So, logically why borrow from them at all? This is the stupidest strategy on earth.
What a cynical clusterf$#@*k of an ad.
Mortgages have become un-affordable so instead of changing the system that has created this situation we’ll instead run an ad that tells people they should just be happy that they’re not dying instead.
What a crappy premise, not surprising that it comes from A BANK.
What’s next, an ad aimed at retirees highlighting the benefit of euthanasia so that their kids can afford a home.
As a gen y whose friend’s seem obsessive about getting the latest and greatest of everything instantly, I found this ad powerful. And as someone who has had family members die well before their time, I think this ad is a good reminder not to get swept away with the “borrow $50k more line”. The fact that it was commissioned by a bank doesn’t take away from the message delivered or the power of the sentiment for me.
What a shame Gruen’s finished. Would love to see their dissection.
Plus is the prop “Live more borrow less” the reverse of the old NAB tag line… and aren’t they owned by NAB?
What a shame Gruen’s finished. Would love to see their dissection.
Plus is the prop “Live more borrow less” the reverse of the old NAB tag line… and aren’t they owned by NAB?
Wow….i didn’t realise that working in advertising mean’t taking advantage of the sick and vulnerable….but U Bank you have done that.
When i saw this ad on TV it absolutely enraged me. Has anyone in the production or creative team ever watched a loved one die in palliative care, i don’t think so.
The only people that deserve congrats for this ad are the people on screen, they are brave and i hope people can learn from them a bit of perspective.
But shame on you U Bank….you have stooped so so low.
I see anyone who thinks this campaign as a platform for bringing light to an issue experienced by the terminally ill is a candidate for natural selection.
To promote a product that has a longer expiration date than the borrower is just in poor taste. Live more, borrow less! Fuck! How about live more, stress less! Geez, I knew I didn’t like banks before but UBank you have just moved to the top of the list. Congratulations. You’re social experiment just terminated any positive perceptions I had of your brand.
This is shameful. You NEVER use terminally ill people and their perspective to support a buisness advertisement. My friends and I have decided to boycott U Bank. I can’t say how disgusted I am at the low levels we’ve reached when it comes to gaining profits.
Please take this work off air – it is offensive in every way
What a bank with a moral conscience…give me a break. The last thing anyone would do is consider any kind of dept, loans, stress etc if they are terminally ill. U Bank is a branch of National Australia bank who over years have screwed people without any concern for their well being. If you are trying to show a caring attitude cut your interest rates on credit cards, cut fees on servicing loans, show some real compassion and not this pseudo caring crap