How Shelter balanced sensitivity with creativity in low-budget ad with high-stakes

Addressing a crisis affecting countless people across the UK and beyond, Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, used its annual festive donation drive to highlight the stark realities of temporary accommodation. The campaign, created in collaboration with ad agency Don’t Panic, delivers a powerful and unforgettable message.

The story follows a young girl and her father, who at first appear to be on an adventure in another galaxy, exploring the surface of an otherworldly planet. But it soon becomes clear that this is a world of the father’s imagination, a creation meant to offer his daughter an escape from the harsh realities of their life in temporary accommodation. This imaginary journey becomes a poignant refuge from the challenges they face in their difficult circumstances.

This marks the fourth year Don’t Panic has collaborated with the charity. Each year, the creative team faces the challenge of raising the bar to stand out amid a sea of emotional ads and competing with the high production budgets of major campaigns.

At the beginning of any campaign, the team speaks with groups of people who have lived experience with Shelter. In fact, Don’t Panic’s executive creative director and creative partner, Rick Dodds, explains that it’s a vital part of the process.

“The thing that has struck me year on year, and especially this year, is how hard parents work to protect their children when they’re in a homeless situation,” he says. “It’s a whole different type of situation because you are protecting them from something that nobody should be in and certainly no child should be in.”

He adds that the creative team felt it was their job to portray just how difficult it is for parents in these circumstances to try protect their children emotionally, physically and mentally.

“Even though it’s a terrible thing to go through, the love that you see in families when they’re going through it, and how they pull together, that’s what we always try show,” adds Shelter’s policy manager Deborah Garvie.

Something that came through in the groups this year was the number of fathers in this kind of situation. Dodds says that one of the first ideas they wrote down on a piece of paper was, “A parent will do anything to protect their child,” and ideated how they use play to escape from reality.

Having spent time in temporary accommodation while working with Shelter, Dodds and his team realized that black mold on the wall could look like space. “There were two elements that led us into the sort of alien world. Firstly, we wanted it to be somewhere the exact opposite of the temporary accommodation, which is small, cramped, enclosed. We wanted somewhere that was open and expansive and, also, we wanted to integrate as many elements from the real temporary accommodation into the imaginative world.”

For example, it was Dominic Hawley, the director, who suggested putting a jam jar on the octopus’s head, turning it into a makeshift space helmet. This detail, along with others, such as the moment the girl sees Santa pass by in the alien world, which is a drawing of Santa on the fridge in their temporary accommodation, helped create visual connections that tied the story together. These touches added authenticity, illustrating how the father uses the limited tools at his disposal to craft an imaginative world for his daughter, keeping the narrative grounded in reality.

The deeper truth behind this story is that all parents engage in playful moments with their children, creating imaginative dens or fantastical worlds for fun. In this ad, however, the play serves a different purpose, offering protection and escape from a harsh reality.

Balancing creativity with sensitivity is hard. Don’t Panic made a conscious effort to stay grounded in authenticity by working closely with lived experience groups throughout the entire creative process. This ensured the campaign never lost sight of the realities faced by people in temporary accommodation.

To achieve this, extraordinary lengths were taken to ensure every detail of the setting was 100% authentic. They didn’t exaggerate or underplay the conditions but instead drew from real stories shared by individuals with firsthand experience. For example, one person described a persistent dripping tap, while another spoke of a broken lock that forced them to barricade the door with bags for safety. These details were carefully woven into the final script, reinforcing its realism and emotional impact.

“People who have experienced homelessness need to feel that they’ve been seen by this advert, not feel like it has been putting them down or is inaccurate in any way,” Dodds says. “They need to feel that we’ve understood them and seen them at the same time. It needs to inspire and educate the broader public because temporary accommodation isn’t a household phrase and yet it’s incredibly prevalent across the country.”

And prevalent it is. Over 150,000 children in England alone are currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation, which is an increase of 20,000 since last year. It’s the highest number recorded in the country.

“The work has been producing better results year on year, in terms of donations, but the problem is getting bigger,” says Dodds, adding that it just doesn’t have the same budget as big brands this Christmas ad season. “There can be a feeling with a charity ad that, because you’re not dealing with the same amount of production and media money, then maybe the pressure is less, but actually, if this ad doesn’t work, that’s 150,000 children this Christmas who we can’t help.”

Dodds explains that this campaign showcased Shelter’s creative bravery. He notes that if viewers pause the ad halfway through, they might not immediately realize it’s for a charity. The team recognized early on that starting the ad with an obvious message about homelessness, especially during this time of year, risked losing the audience’s attention. Instead, they focused on making viewers care about the protagonists before revealing the ad’s connection to the charity – a decision that, according to Dodds, required significant confidence from Shelter.

Pulling in favors from creatives is a big ask from the team. What they lack in budget, they promise to make up for in the creative opportunities. The production budget is “minuscule,” says Dodds, and people need to feel inspired by the somewhat DIY approach, which can be extremely appealing. At the end of the day, Shelter needs donations and it needs eyeballs on this project.

“People shouldn’t be homeless and in temporary accommodation with their children in the first place,” concludes Garvie.

“We’ve got a really pressing and growing housing emergency in this country. We have a new government that has promised to tackle homelessness. The families who we help and support don’t want anybody else to go through it. They just want an end to it.”