CREATIVE agency Story.1888 and Tourette’s charity Tourettes Action have launched the world’s first TikTok docu-series on the condition. Named ‘It’s What Makes Me Tic’, the campaign is raising awareness of the true reality of living with Tourette’s to dispel some of the myths that surround it.

Launched on 15 May, the seven-week series stars five people from across the UK who are sharing their experiences of living with Tourette’s. They discuss their diagnoses and the challenges they have faced, to learnings and triumphs, explaining it openly and candidly. They are:

• Seren, 19 years old and a student in Cheltenham, has physical tics in “every muscle group you can think of” and several vocal tics including coprolalia – involuntary outbursts of obscene words or socially inappropriate remarks.
• Paul, 59 and father of four from Northumberland has severe verbal and motor tics. His motor tics have become so severe that he frequently dislocates his shoulders and knees.
• Josh, 28, a barber and business owner from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, first started noticing physical tics after a ski accident at the age of 14. Despite his condition which includes coprolalia, he runs a successful Hertfordshire barbershop and has amassed over 250,000 followers on TikTok for his Tourette’s content.
• Erin, a 21-year-old Newcastle local and University of Sunderland student, initially felt embarrassed of her verbal tics, and negative reactions from her friends and people at school served only to exacerbate this feeling. She has motor tics and verbal tics including coprolalia.
• Gavin, 40, a composer from London, discovered that he was able to slow down his tics, and sometimes stop them altogether, by playing music – and threw himself into a career as a musician before going on to become a composer.

Just three weeks since the campaign’s launch on the Tourettes Action TikTok channel (@tourettes_action), it has already shown to have a significant impact on how society views Tourette’s. The campaign has amassed almost 15,000 likes and sparked important conversations around understanding and accepting Tourette’s as part of everyday life.

In addition to the TikTok activity, regional activity took place in each of the docu-series participants’ hometowns. Banner images capturing each individual and how they’d like people to view their condition will be displayed on a digivan and driven around their town or city.

The campaign, which is being run on behalf of Tourettes Action by the creative agency Story.1888, has been designed to raise awareness of TS and help the 300,000 Brits who have the condition.

Emma McNally, CEO of Tourettes Action, said:

“Tourette’s is quite possibly one of the most misunderstood conditions out there. Whilst most have heard of Tourette’s there still remains huge misconceptions about the condition.  The majority of people think Tourettes is rare and comedic and that everyone with the condition shouts out obscenities, all of which are untrue! We want to show what TS really looks like. Together with Story.1888 we are delivering an important campaign designed to challenge the misconceptions surrounding the condition and educate people across all areas of society.”

Martin McLaughlin, Creative Director at Story.1888, said:

“The opportunity to work with Tourettes Action has been a real privilege and the engagement we have seen so far from our incredible docu-series participants and the charity’s rapidly growing TikTok following is phenomenal. We are still only at the start of this campaign; I cannot wait to see how it develops and how much change we can make.”

To follow the campaign, please visit: https://www.tiktok.com/@tourettes_action.

For more information on the campaign, contact sarah.crimes@thepoint1888.com.