Using poetry in motion to prevent rail line suicides

Challenge

Around 4% of all suicides in the UK occur on the railway but the emotional, human and financial costs are disproportionately high as they can take place in view of passengers, station staff and drivers as well as resulting in considerable disruption to services. Northern Rail and their partner agency, Juice Learning, approached us to help develop a poem they’d had written by Simon Armitage into a moving animation.

Approach 

Armitage’s powerful words called upon members of the public to make a simple intervention if they were worried about someone near a rail line - by asking ‘All right?’ We felt it needed a dynamic but also warm treatment to do the poem and its sensitive topic justice. We used a rota-scoping technique, similar to the type used to create a sense of scale in classic Disney movie. The end result was an illustrated style of animation with the look and feel of watercolour painting. 

Outcome

We delivered a moving 90-second advert which was shown online via YouTube and Northern Rail’s social channels. On top of this, we developed a number of digital assets for use on their trains on-board screens, along with digital ad boards on platforms. Alongside this, we designed print posters, featuring a QR code linking through to the film.