They also need your attention - Cadena Mayor | Clapboard Ad Archive

They also need your attention, developed by Arena Media Costa Rica for Cadena Mayor and released in 2017, is a pointed intervention in the Public Service arena that cuts through industry clutter with its unvarnished focus on societal neglect of the elderly—a demographic habitually overlooked in both policy and culture. Leaning into what Clapboard’s taxonomy classifies as FORMAT#2—Show the Problem, the campaign enlists the documentary and social experiment genre to make the issue of invisibility viscerally real, setting up the viewer as witness, then as participant in the call for wider communal recognition and empathy. The film’s Spanish-language narrative mirrors real-world dynamics, capturing candid moments that reveal both subtle and overt signs of societal disregard, while the lack of overt dramatization or testimonial storytelling underscores the ordinariness—and pervasiveness—of the problem. By refusing artifice and avoiding celebrity faces or authored soundbites, Arena underscores that the campaign’s central issue is neither abstract nor rare; it is woven into the everyday, familiar to audiences across Costa Rica and beyond. Cadena Mayor’s brand emerges as a credible and compassionate advocate, with the film’s authenticity driving home the invitation not to act on behalf of, but alongside, those whose needs are habitually ignored. Resisting overwrought creative flourishes, the campaign anchors its emotional impact in small, telling details—a quiet visual language that builds empathy through recognition rather than pity, while framing attention itself as the vital first step toward meaningful change. The creative choice to show the problem, rather than narrate solutions, aligns squarely with contemporary social marketing best practices, which privilege audience self-discovery and emotional engagement as precursors to behavioral shift. In the crowded public interest category, They also need your attention stands out for its restraint and clarity of purpose, trading spectacle for sustained resonance, and inviting not momentary sympathy but continuous, actionable awareness. Clapboard rates this 63/100. This campaign signals that in the evolving landscape of public interest communications, authenticity and directness—which foster self-reflection and communal empathy—are rapidly emerging as the industry’s most effective creative tools.