Actor and writer James Corden has lent his comedy skills to charity in a new spoof advert, ‘The Feel Bad Four / James Corden’, shot by the photographer and director Rankin.
Launched today, the video takes a tongue-in-cheek look at how, or how not, to do a charity advert to help support the development organization Sightsavers International.
Rankin and James Corden hope the spoof video launched at www.sightsavers.org/feelbadfour ahead of World Sight Day (11 October) will successfully use comedy to help spread the word about a very serious issue. Today eight in 10 people who are blind don’t need to be.
Talking about why he chose to use comedy to help highlight Sightsavers’ life –changing work across Africa and Asia, Rankin said: “Charity campaigns are saturated with negative images so this film is about making people connect with something, being honest and human. For the project I suggested that we went for something positive instead and James was the perfect man for the job. I love James, we wrote the script with him in mind. He is a great actor, friendly and funny.”
James, who recently returned to the UK after critical acclaim in New York for his award winning performance in One Man, Two Guvnors added: “When Rankin asked me to be involved in this charity advert it took me all of two seconds to say yes! It is such an important charity that means a lot to me.”
Rankin was involved with the project from conception through execution to realization, working under the banner of his new ‘Full Service’ creative solutions. He and his team commissioned and collaborated with the talented team, including James Corden and Scriptwriter Michael Holden, to originate and bring together the final campaign.
Today there are 39 million people in the world who are blind, yet 80 per cent of blindness is preventable or curable. For example, trachoma, a painful eye disease that can cause blindness. It costs Sightsavers as little as thirty five pence to protect someone from this disease and just £8 for an operation to save the sight of someone being blinded by it in the advanced stages.
Director of UK Funding and Marketing Susan Adams said: "Sightsavers wanted to create something that was completely different to anything we’ve done before. But at the same time we wanted to highlight the shocking facts about avoidable blindness and the work that Sightsavers is doing to stop this.
“To have both Rankin and James Corden support us with this project is incredible. We hope that the public enjoy the film, but more importantly, help stop people from going blind by sharing the video or making a donation.”
