Willy Wonka and the social media campaign: Raising Alzheimer's awareness

Late Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory actor Gene Wilder, who sadly passed away from Alzheimer's last year, is at the centre of a new advertising campaign designed to raise awareness of the degenerative disease.

The campaign, which comprises short clips to music from the much-loved film, has been developed as part of the Alzheimer's Association's new Pure Imagination Project. It aims to show how the illness can change a person's life by blurring reality and make-believe in a clever way.

Sweets are shown gradually disappearing from the fantastical scenes, to represent memories fading from a person's full and active mind.

Wilder's widow Karen B Wilder commented: "When I saw this campaign, I knew that it brilliantly and beautifully captured all that Alzheimer's can take away, and my hope is that it will motivate people to learn more and to seek to change the course of this disease for future generations."

Developed by a team at MullenLowe in the US, the campaign is designed to be shared across social media, which its creators hope will help to boost awareness of Alzheimer's disease.