TikTok star Nathan Evans launches ‘The Reluctant Shanty’ to help raise awareness on World Refugee Day in new campaign via BMF
TikTok star Nathan Evans has launched ‘The Reluctant Shanty’ on World Refugee Day for Australia for UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) to raise awareness and tell the story of the reluctant sailor, refugee survivors, created in partnership with creative agency BMF and production company FINCH.
The ‘Reluctant Shanty’ aims to honour the courage and resilience of refugees in Australia and across the world.
Evans – the modern, global face of sea shanty music – will help launch The Reluctant Shanty song, which was created and inspired by interviews with five refugees.
Featuring three of the Australian refuges, the campaign launches across TikTok, PR, and Instagram and leverages the sea shanty phenomenon to raise awareness of refugees and funds for UNHCR, through Australia for UNHCR.
@unrefugees On World Refugee Day, we’re sharing with you The Reluctant Shanty. The new shanty is based on the experiences of refugees who have embarked on a dangerous journey by sea in search of safety, and survived to tell their story. Join us in raising awareness of these reluctant sailors. Learn more: https://reluctantshanty.com/ #reluctantshanty #worldrefugeeday #australiaforunhcr ♬ The Reluctant Shanty - Mandela, Rita, and Heifa
Says Doug Hamilton, creative director at BMF: “Sea shanties are a 400-year-old genre of music developed by sailors to tell stories of adventure at sea. But today, not all sailors want to go to sea. The Reluctant Shanty is the first shanty based on the experiences of refugees, who’ve embarked on dangerous journeys by sea, in search of safety and survived to tell their story.”
Says Kyra Bartley, director at FINCH: “The most important part of this project for me was making sure that the humanity of our three heroes shone through. The elevated visual approach gave us the symbolism and cinematic scope we needed, whilst still maintaining a raw intimacy that cuts right through to your heart.”
@nathanevanss This World Refugee Day, I’ve teamed up with @Australia for UNHCR to launch the #TheReluctantShanty. A sea shanty based on the experiences of refugees, who’ve embarked on dangerous journeys by sea to escape persecution and conflict. Please duet it to help raise awareness of these reluctant sailors, and support UNHCR’s work helping displaced people across the globe. #Australiaforunhcr #TheReluctantShanty #ReluctantShanty #nathanevanss ♬ The Reluctant Shanty - Mandela, Rita, and Heifa
UNHCR is the UN Refugee Agency, a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for displaced peoples.
Creative Agency: BMF
Chief Creative Officer: Alex Derwin
Creative Director: Douglas Hamilton
Art Director: Jack Robertson
Copywriter: Robert Boddington
Head of Art & Design: Lincoln Grice
Designer: Alex Kidd & Yoon Park
Chief Strategy Officer: Christina Aventi
Chief Executive Officer: Stephen McArdle
Account Director: Rebekah O’Grady
Head of TV: Jenny Lee-Archer
Agency Producer: Jessica Vella
Production Company: FINCH
Director: Kyra Bartley
Managing Director: Corey Esse
Executive Producer: Loren Bradley
Producer: Nick Simkins & Bryce Lintern
Post Production: Atticus
Editor: Delaney Murphy
Post Producer: Kani Saib
Sound Production: Rumble
Lyricist: Robert Boddington
DOP: James Brown
Photographer: David Collins
Integrated Producer: Simone Plaza
Digital Producer: Samuel Elliott
Web Development Partner: 2DM
Creative Services Director: Clare Yardley
Client: Australia for UNHCR
28 Comments
I can count at least 3 from the last year alone.
This is easily the best thing I’ve seen all year. The film is so beautiful and powerful. Interesting strategy with the tiktok, I imagine it’ll land pretty well with that age group
Advertising at its worst. Trivialising the experiences of refugees so your agency could jump on a tired trend? Awful. Enjoy your back-patting and high fives.
Hey Sea Shitey, You do realise this is for the UNHCR? A global organisation focusing on the plight of refugees.
Nicely idea. Website is simple too.
Feels
if you watch this and think hearing refugees sing is trivial, then your terrible puns are obviously not the worst thing about you
Beautiful Kyra. As always… Such a talent 🙂
Beautiful piccies too James Brown.
pretty damn good
well done BMF
That’s how charity campaigns should make you feel. I’ve seen a few shanty-related ads in the last year, but this is the only one that feels like it has real insight instead of opportunistic gimmick
I’m with you. It’s this kind of work that shows quite how far most ad agencies have drifted from relevance… and taste.
Beautifully done. Makes me very sad. Lovely work Douglas et al.
Lovely insight
Well done to all involved!
Go Rob and Jack!!
Good idea. Incredible craft. Jel.
So, can we do singing starving people next? Or singing war victims? Somehow don’t feel right. In other words, it feels like an ad.
So – genuine question – how do you think refugees should be portrayed then? Because for me this is a beautiful rendition that shows them with humanity, strength and agency instead of the usual poverty porn dreck. I’m interested to know how you’d go about presenting them in a way that’s going to generate empathy and ultimately donation $, which I assume is what UNHCR is after
I’m not a fan – too adland for me. So, what would I do? I’d use real footage of real refugees in real refugee situations with real stories wanting our help. Or I’d use real refugees recalling their plight before settling in Australia and highlight their gratitude to Australia and the real contributions they’ve made to the communities who’ve embraced them. Sound boring? Maybe, but on this issue, I’m more likely to be persuaded by the truth than advertising.
Message, craft and treatment on the video itself is excellent, as is the idea of tapping into the TikTok sea shanty trend in a really novel and arresting way. The video itself treats the subject matter with the right amount of dignity.
But the launch of it feels a bit gross and cynically ad-land. Think it might be because it’s explicitly titled ‘The Reluctant Sea Shanty’, and launched with copy that feels like it was ripped from the forthcoming Cannes entry.
It’s a shame, because the ‘Not all sailors want to go to sea’ line is so powerful, and that plus the video do enough on their own.
The message, the song, wonderful work Rob & Jack.
Beautiful. Powerful. Well done guys.
Fair play. Good points. But. Refugees and immigration is becoming, and will become, the biggest human rights issue on the planet in the coming years. More so than climate change – because its manifestly real and visible. And advertising (like this) is not going to make sweet fuck all of a difference. None. If you think it is, your head is in the sand. This is a global issue, where governments will need to unite and plan for an entirely different world moving forward. Get real, we are talking 50-100 million plus deaths a year – all down to this issue. This is well-meaning twee. Sorry.
This is a fundraising campaign. UNHCR uses donations to help real refugees who are facing real life and death decisions at the frontline of this humanitarian crisis. Less than $100 can save the lives of an entire family. Of course this campaign is not going to solve the crisis alone, but if it motivates people to donate money to save even one life then it’s entirely worth it.
You’re right, this is currently a huge issue and will become exponentially more so in the future. But your solution is what – don’t make ads about it? The way to get future governments to implement policies that have real-world effects is to raise future leaders who care about it. And there’s a pretty solid argument that a method of doing that is engaging them through their preferred social channels (as tiktok is currently) with content that stands out, has emotional heft and is spruiked by people they respect. You know, before they grow up and become cynical comment thread lurkers on CB.
If making beautifully crafted films solved real-world problems we wouldn’t have all the issues that plague the earth today. This is akin to making a big brand ad when the real problem is a huge flaw in the company’s logistics. Let’s see how many donations this actually triggers.
Oath. Also – these pieces of “sadvertising” are such an easily repeatable cinematic formula that audiences just plainly tune out.