Shelter's 'Our House. It's not a home', Thursday Murder Club's cosy billboard and Aldi's gender reveal cake

Fanclub's Paul Lucas shares his thoughts on Shelter's campaign, showing the heartbreaking reality of temporary accommodation, Thursday Murder Club's tactile promotion, and Cuthbert The Caterpillar reveals all for parents-to-be.

The summer hiatus is over, and just like that, autumn is upon us. It will be Christmas before you know it.

Fortunately, I’ve not seen many Christmas campaigns worth writing about yet; let’s at least have Halloween and Fireworks Night first, pretty please. 

This week, we have a stark reminder of the reality of temporary accommodation from SHELTER, another yarn from Netflix’s Thursday Murder Club, and Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar revealing all.

SHELTER challenges the meaning of home

What truly defines a home? A bedroom of your own, a kitchen, a lounge, and a bathroom? For many in temporary accommodation, it's often literally a roof and four walls. In a new campaign entitled "Our House is not a Home," this grim reality is powerfully brought to life by homelessness charity SHELTER.

At the heart of the campaign is a music video that acoustically strips down the famous 1982 Madness hit, "Our House", contrasting the original song's optimistic lyrics with hauntingly stark, new visuals. 

It shows a family of five trying to maintain a sense of normalcy in an overcrowded and damp space.

The video juxtaposes lines like "Father wears his Sunday best" with a dad desperately scrubbing black mould from the ceiling, and "Sister's sighing in her sleep" with a young girl forced to share a bed with her siblings amid the blare of sirens. This illustrates that temporary accommodation can last for months or even years, disrupting a family's work, education, and health.

The sensitively crafted film perfectly captures the trauma of living in temporary housing, highlighting how these poor conditions affect people's futures, especially children.

The campaign aims to ignite a national conversation about what truly makes a house a home and encourage donations to the charity. Watch it for yourself, follow the instructions and make a donation of your own.

Netflix knits together a campaign for Thursday Murder Club

I'm pretty sure Richard Osman's best-selling novel about a group of senior sleuths needs no introduction, and I’m sure you’ve all seen the knitted post-box toppers that heralded the launch of the new Netflix film of the same name. This week, the streaming giant followed up its cute knitting antics with a full-scale woven billboard.

The quirky out-of-home yarn was skillfully put together by knitting groups recruited from across the North West of England.

The tactile execution plays directly into the show’s tone, a cosy mystery with an edge, and sports the cheeky slogan, "Don’t get too cosy."

The campaign certainly gives new meaning to the term "well-crafted."

Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar reveals all

Aldi's beloved Cuthbert the Caterpillar has been given a revealing makeover as it taps into a US cultural trend that is slowly but surely cementing itself in British culture, too: the gender reveal.

With some parents apparently willing to pay over £150 on gender reveal cakes, the loveable chocolate-covered larva now comes filled with either vibrant pink or blue buttercream, offering parents-to-be a fun and affordable way to reveal their baby's sex.

The limited-edition cake is not currently available in stores (it would be mad not to, though) but is offered through a traffic-driving "shopper" competition.

It’s another clever piece of Cuthbert one-upmanship that is sure to leave his hapless rival, Colin, out in the cold as he celebrates his own 35th birthday Arctic makeover.

Well, that wraps up another Creative Corner!

As ever, if you’re launching something that deserves a spot in Creative Corner, or have seen a campaign you just love, please do share it with us. Email paul.lucas@fanclubpr.com