"The Runner"

21 February 2022

60s

Step on it.

Director Ross Bolidai draws from his own experience of homelessness in this focused Centrepoint ad. He tells the story of a young girl who wants to be a runner when she grows up—as a child from a troubled family, she runs for all the worst reasons.

The girl heads straight to her bedroom to avoid yet another fight between her parents; on her sixteenth birthday, she bolts out the front door with as much as she can carry on her back. She has nothing to run from anymore, but has nothing to run towards either.

This is where the advertised charity come in, urging viewers to help fund education and training through gifts in wills. Thanks to Bolidai's pacy direction and raw aesthetic, the message has an urgency and physicality that matches what's on-screen.

UK

Charities