British Red Cross has launched a new ad that aims to highlight that your kindness can help connect communities.

“In the house next door, in the cafe you visit every week, or on your bus to work, every day you could meet people who feel alone and isolated, with no one to turn to. We might not realise it, but loneliness can be just inches away from us, yet far too easily missed. It’s time we recognise just how close we all are to people who need our help. And how much more connected we could be if we offer them our kindness.” That was the idea behind the 60-second spot, which features several people in different life scenarios and their thoughts expressed through onscreen lines. “Feels like all I do is tag onto other people’s lives. I should be having fun, but instead go to bed early just to waste time,” believes a mother who’s shown swinging her toddler. “All I want is a hug here and there or just ask me how I’m feeling. I wish it could go back to how it was,” wishes another young woman as she’s watching her girlfriend scrolling through her phone. “If I cannot work how do you meet people? I want my English to get better but the class is hard to get to,” is the message of an immigrant sitting alone at a table in a coffee shop. “Uni is supposed to be the best time of your life but I don’t feel like I fit in,” is the thought of a college student, who’s obviously feeling like an outsider in a group of girls who are already friends. “How do you make friends when everyone already has?” she’s also asking. The ad also features a widower, for whom life seems very hard without his life partner. “Keep expecting her to be there when I get home. I feel like I have no one to tell anything to,” he “says” without a voice, while holding the photo of the woman who was his “reason for living”.

The advert ends with a young man in a wheelchair meeting up with a woman and having a chat over a cup of coffee in a square and with the onscreen lines “Your kindness can help connect communities”.