Misunderstood

To mark Tourette’s Awareness Month (15th May - 15th June) AML have created an emotive, powerful campaign for the UK’s leading Tourette syndrome charity, Tourettes Action, with the aim of dismantling harmful stereotypes, promoting understanding and changing hearts and minds.

The campaign film, produced by The Attic, features a compelling rendition of Nina Simone’s iconic “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” performed by Grace Cope, a young woman with Tourette’s, alongside a choir of individuals also living with the condition.

The film captures the emotional weight of navigating life with Tourette syndrome (TS) - from explaining involuntary tics to confronting public misconceptions and unwanted stares. It builds to a heart-stopping finale where the choir joins together in a call for empathy, connection and deeper understanding.

Commenting on the campaign Hugo Bone, ECD, AML Group says: “We want this campaign to be a plea for greater understanding and acceptance from the Tourette’s community to the wider world. The lyrics to Nina Simone’s ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ perfectly reflect that plea, so we recorded our own version with a choir of wonderful people of all ages, all living with Tourette’s, and made a music video of it. Every one of them, as well as many others who generously auditioned for the choir, appears in the poster, which is styled as an album cover. We hope we have created something memorable that will help people living with Tourette’s to be better understood.”

Despite affecting 1 in 100 school-aged children - a prevalence similar to Autism and childhood epilepsy - Tourette Syndrome continues to be widely misunderstood. Too often dismissed as a behavioural issue or unfairly linked to swearing, TS is in fact a complex, genetically determined neurological condition that affects both children and adults. Tourettes Action is working to reframe the narrative and bring understanding where judgment has long prevailed.