The spot, called "first day", will air tonight during ITV’s 10pm news and uses footage shot at the maternal waiting home at Peters Town Clinic in Liberia in 2013. The film was not taken specially to make this ad.
The ad, which was created by Adam & Eve/DDB, opens by warning viewers of the distressing scenes and then shows a young woman, called T-Girl, giving birth. A midwife carries the baby across the room, where we see that he is blue and not making any sound.
The film then cuts back to T-Girl, who is crying with her back to the camera, as words appear on screen stating, "For a million babies every year, their first day is also their last".
Viewers then see the midwife rubbing the newborn baby’s back until he finally starts crying, and more words appear on the screen – "Basic training for midwives can help end first day deaths", followed by a call for donations.
The spot, which will run on TV from until 2 March, was written and art directed by Ben Tollett, and directed by Jonathan Hyams through The Source.
It is part of Save the Children’s 'No Child Born To Die' campaign, which aims to save two million babies’ lives each year, and raise awareness of the one million that die the day they are born.
Sue Allchurch, the marketing and communications director at Save the Children, said: "The ‘first day’ creative is a step away from our usual brand advertising, but we felt that that a shocking and impactful creative was needed to raise awareness of the scale of the issue and to give the bigger picture of the changes that Save the Children wants to make in the world – stopping children dying for good and helping them fulfil their potential.
"We hope that our ad lets people know about the work we do, so that they have the opportunity to help us help children either directly by donating, or by campaigning for the wider changes that will save many more children’s lives."
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