Most smartphone users know that when they can’t remember the name of a song they are listening to, all they have to do is open the Shazam app and within seconds, the app listens to the song and delivers the title, artist and album.
But one day something strange happened. When users would “Shazam” a song, the music app couldn’t recall the song. Instead, the app wrote messages:
“I’ve heard this before…”
“I’m sure I know it.”
“I just can’t quite…”
Smartphone users looking for song titles were confused, but the glitch was intentional. The effects were part of a marketing campaign called “The Day Shazam Forgot,” meant to bring awareness to Alzheimer’s disease.
These short, forgetful phrases are the warning signs of Alzheimer’s, a brain disease that, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International, affected an estimated 46.8 million people worldwide in 2015. The organization estimates that someone in the world develops dementia every three seconds. Still, many aren’t familiar with the disease until it affects someone they love.
So Shazam partnered with Alzheimer’s Research U.K. to help change the perception of Alzheimer’s, and shed light on how troubling it can be to forget. The campaign creatively intertwined modern-day technology with genuine human attributes to construct a memorable campaign to help those who are “trying to remember.”
Read more about “The Day Shazam Forgot” here.