Alzheimer’s Research UK: advert-body-1 by Aardman Animations

Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) has launched Santa Forgot, a disruptive and beautiful animation that imagines a world where the magic of Christmas has been lost because Santa is living with the effects of dementia and no longer visits children across the world on Christmas Eve.

The attention-grabbing concept highlights the varied symptoms and social isolation of dementia and raises awareness that the diseases that cause it, most commonly Alzheimer’s, strike indiscriminately and really can affect anyone, even Santa.

Santa Forgot’s central character is a young girl called Freya, who has grown-up in a world where Santa has stopped visiting on Christmas Eve. On learning about Santa’s condition, Freya travels to the North Pole. She offers her own support and re-mobilises the redundant elves as researchers, explaining her belief that ‘if Santa has a disease, research can find a way to fix it’.

Through the depiction of Freya and Santa’s elves, ARUK showcases that only with world leading research, new approaches and innovative thinking can the diseases which cause dementia be defeated.