Beautiful visuals in St John Ambulance's harrowing new advert courtesy of BBH

When it comes to advertising the very best ads have to be the most memorable ones and whilst that leaves Compare the Meercat and a whole host of other jingle-heavy, unavoidably catchy advertisements permanently embedded in your mind, it also makes the hard-hitting films which carry the somewhat more serious messages at the forefront of your thoughts.

Being released during prime time television yesterday, St John Ambulance’s brand new video entitled Helpless most definitely ticks the hard-hitting box.

Telling the harrowing story of the journey of a cancer survivor from the moment he is diagnosed, through his recovery and then to his deathbed when he chokes at a barbecue, the clever campaign centres around the fact that 140,000 people die each year in situations in which basic first aid could have saved their lives – the same number of people who die from cancer each year.

Beautifully shot from beginning to end, the two minute film is the collaborative creation of advertising hotshots Bartle Bogle Hegarty and the obviously seriously talented director Beniro Montorio and, whilst it may not being the cheeriest way to spend two minutes, you sure won’t be forgetting it in a while.