Comic Relief is launching a multi-channel campaign – featuring the likes of Dame Judi Dench and Benedict Cumberbatch – as it looks to encourage people across the UK to get involved with Red Nose Day 2021.

The ‘Funny is Power’ campaign, devised by creative agency Pablo, centres around a 60-second film presented by Dame Judi which ends with her using a vacuum cleaner on Cumberbatch’s face to show that, despite our differences, we are all united by humour.

The campaign will launch with the film this week and then will continue across digital, social, out-of-home, TV, video-on-demand, and partnerships up until BBC One’s Red Nose Day Night of TV on Friday 19 March.

Our work together [with Pablo] on Sport Relief 2020 helped us to increase our brand relevance and increase understanding of the areas we fund,” said Jo Cullen, Head of Marketing & Media at Comic Relief. “We are looking forward to achieving the same with our flagship Red Nose Day campaign.  We’re excited to see how all this brilliant work comes to life this Red Nose Day.”

Comic Relief hopes the campaign will empower people to get involved in fundraising, supporting, donating, or just by flicking on BBC One on 19 March.

The charity, which was founded by Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry in 1985 in response to the famine in Ethiopia, will look to use money raised during this Red Nose Day period to tackle homelessness, mental health stigma, domestic abuse, and support those impacted by COVID-19.