Shelter Christmas Campaign

This came through the post the other day. 

The way the letter was folded, when I opened the envelope the first thing I saw was this email print out with handwritten notes in the margin.

It felt like I was snooping on someone's private correspondence about their housing situation.

I was straight in to a harrowing real-life story, wondering what was going on with this woman and her children.

I was engaged and I was feeling emotion - exactly the point of Shelter's campaign to raise awareness (and money) to help the work they do, particularly at this time of year.

Once I'd figured out that it was a slice of real life being used as marketing I wondered whether Shelter had taken a real life situation and adapted it for use in their campaign, or had they actually taken a 100% genuine email from a woman who'd accessed their services, an actual Christmas card a child had created, photocopied it and shared it with everyone in their database.

And I wondered if I felt OK about that?

I assumed what I'd received was an interpretation based on real events rather than the real events themselves...but I wasn't sure, so I asked Shelter.

And here's the reply they sent me:

Hi Colin
My name is Bill from Shelter and I worked with Danielle on getting her story together. Thanks for getting in touch. Yes, I can confirm that Danielle’s story is genuine… as is the Christmas card and the comments from Danielle’s adviser. It’s all the real words of the people involved. The bits redacted are her personal details. We always use real stories where it’s possible… it wouldn’t be right making up stuff when there are so many people struggling with housing problems up and down the country.

So there you have it. 

A very interesting and thought provoking approach to getting the message out there. Rather than having me hear (again) from the charity, let me hear direct from an individual they work with.

The next step surely is a video. Or send Danielle round to knock my door?