Bristol-based creative agency Caroline has enlisted the help of the city’s Oscar-winning animation studio Aardman to bring to life the star of its latest charity marketing campaign – a character called ‘Mac’.
Mac was created by the team at Caroline to spearhead a campaign for The Macular Society, a small charity that supports people with central vision loss. 
The campaign aims to raise awareness of the little-known eye condition Age-related Macular Degeneration – the leading cause of vision loss in the UK.
Keen to gain profile for the campaign in the highly competitive charity sector, the agency approached Aardman to see if it would be willing to help design the character and create a short film to help launch the campaign.
Aardman, best known for its much-loved characters Wallace & Gromit, Morph and Shaun the Sheep, agreed to come on board and the animated short was completed by end of February.
Caroline joint creative director Andy Purnell said: “The Macular Society is a small and relatively unknown charity, but they are doing some amazing work to help support people suffering from vision loss, primarily those with AMD, a condition that is becoming more and more common in our society as we all live longer.
“Charity advertising is not easy – it is a very, very crowded market. With a small budget we wanted to do something that would make us stand out from the crowd. 
“We came up with Mac, an engaging character that would help bring a complex issue to life, and we were delighted that Aardman agreed to come on board to ‘bring him to life’. Meet Mac here
The film chronicles the part Mac plays in giving Gloria, his elderly ‘owner’, a wonderful and active life, to which vision is key. Sadly, Mac succumbs to AMD, and poor Gloria’s full and varied life is severely affected, as, of course, is Mac.
It will be used alongside a number of other activities, including road shows, events, materials and additional channel activity to raise awareness of the condition of AMD and the essential role the Macular Society plays in helping sufferers and funding research to find a cure for AMD. The campaign will also be appealing for donations to help the Macular Society in its vital work, and to increase membership.
Aardman executive producer and head of partner content, Heather Wright, added: “We love making films for charities like this one for the Macular Society because it gives us the opportunity to use our creativity in a meaningful way beyond simply entertaining.
“Animated characters can be a powerful tool in helping people to understand a complex or difficult subject such as macular degeneration. Mac is an endearing character to look at and we use a lightness of touch in his performance that isn’t frightening but clearly explains the issues.
“He seems benign and happy to start with, but then as the condition worsens we understand the symptoms that sufferers will recognise and other people can empathise with.”
More than 600,000 people in the UK are affected by AMD. The condition causes damage to the macula, which is part of the retina at the back of the eye. It is only the size of a grain of rice but is responsible for all of our central vision, most of our colour vision and the fine detail of what we see.
Caroline is part of a group of creative companies under the umbrella of the Blue Flint Group.
