Alzheimer’s Research UK partners with Shazam and does something deliberately uncomfortable. It gives the app the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. You use Shazam as you normally would, but the experience starts to break in ways that mirror memory loss. It is a hard-hitting way to feel, in a small moment, what daily struggle can look like.
The insight behind the campaign is about who needs to be reached. Most people associate Alzheimer’s with late life, but the disease can affect people as young as 40. The post cites over 40,000 people under 65 living with dementia in the UK.
The point is education through friction
This does not try to persuade with claims or statistics alone. It turns education into a lived interaction. Shazam is familiar and fast. Making it unreliable becomes the message.
Why the Shazam choice is strategic
Shazam already sits in a high-frequency behaviour loop. People open it in real life moments. That makes it a powerful carrier for a message about everyday disruption, because it arrives inside everyday life rather than as a separate awareness film.
What to take from this if you build digital experiences
- If you want people to understand an abstract condition, simulate a small part of the experience, not just the outcome.
- Put the message inside a familiar behaviour, so the contrast is instantly felt.
- Use disruption sparingly and intentionally, so the discomfort has a purpose and does not turn into irritation.
A few fast answers before you act
What is “The Day Shazam Forgot”?
A Shazam partnership campaign that simulates Alzheimer’s symptoms to give users a direct, hard-hitting insight into memory loss.
Who is the campaign trying to educate?
A younger audience that may assume Alzheimer’s only affects people in late life.
What key fact reframes the audience assumption?
The disease can affect people as young as 40. The post cites over 40,000 people under 65 living with dementia in the UK.
What is the core creative technique?
Turning a familiar app experience into a controlled failure state, so the message is felt rather than only read.
