Superhumans Creatives Turn Directors with New ADHD-Inspired Promo

Richard Biggs and Jolyon White, two of the creatives behind Channel 4’s 2016 campaign We’re the Superhumans, have directed a music video and virtual reality experience that aims to let people feel what it’s like to have Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

ADHD affects up to five per cent of children and can often go undiagnosed, even in adults. The immersive film is a music video for rising indie-rock band Fizzy Blood, created to promote the UK band’s upcoming tour. Biggs and White, creatives at Wieden+Kennedy London, came to the idea of the film following research showing that many users compared ADHD with trying to watch multiple TV screens at once.

Above: Channel 4's We're the Superhumans, which Biggs and White worked on. 

That insight immediately resonated with the song’s writer Paul Howells. “The guys’ idea was not only creatively really exciting, but it immediately spoke to my personal experiences of living with ADHD," said Howells. "The end result is weird, hyperactive, and fucked up – we love it.”

ADHD is the first music video that Biggs and White have directed together, via Agile under the pseudonym Filthy Animal, and features nine different screens including iPhone footage the band shot of themselves on tour, a blow-torch cooking show and a bizarre scene the duo call 'slug painting'.

"We hope this video helps shed light on a disorder that millions of people suffer from and is still hugely misunderstood."

Filthy Animal worked with the creative tech studio Happy Finish to bring the video to life with virtual reality and the project is best experienced with the use of a VR headset, but can also be viewed as a 360 video on mobile and desktop. In addition to the virtual reality version, there is also a traditional music video [top] that uses split screens to create the same, disorientating, ADHD effect.

Despite the video’s bolshy intro, Biggs and White say their promo isn’t a comprehensive representation of all forms of ADHD. “People’s experiences with ADHD, like many mental health disorders, are not so straight-forward that they can be summed up in three minutes. But we hope this video helps shed light on a disorder that millions of people suffer from and is still hugely misunderstood. And also we have always wanted to shoot a room full of men in Speedos crawling around in paint.”

Click here to view the VR experience.