Helping to tackle the loneliness epidemic by teaching the elderly to game.
Xbox:
Beyond Generations
Loneliness among the elderly is on the rise, with a million older people going over a month without speaking to anyone, according to Age UK. During Covid-19, that sense of isolation worsened. Yet gaming amongst the younger generation is on the rise, with gamers using Xbox as a tool to connect, socialise and maintain friendships. We wanted to shine a light on the relationship-building potential of modern online gaming and help bridge the generational divide by enabling the young and old to reconnect. Introducing ‘Beyond Generations: Gaming Against Loneliness’ an initiative aimed at uniting families using the relationship-building potential of today’s games. The campaign kicked off with two documentaries following the real-life stories of two families who had lost touch.
We introduced a ‘ReBoxing’ initiative – a subversion of the category trend of unboxing videos. The initiative empowered gamers, who might have recently upgraded to a new console, to gift their old console to an elderly person in their life – the first step in starting to connect with each other. The kits included everything needed to get an old console ready for its new owner and made it super-simple for an elderly person to set it up correctly.
"A game-changer in bridging the divide between families forced apart"
- The Drum -
