#AutismTMI video recieves 56 million views

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Many autistic people experience sensory overload. There doesn’t seem to be a filter on how much external information is trying to infiltrate their senses. There’s simply too much information and sometimes this can affect their behaviour in public places, but it’s often misunderstood by the public as being "naughty" or even "funny". This was the premise of the National Autistic Society’s #AutismTMI campaign.

Tom Purser, head of campaigns and community engagement at the NAS explains: "Almost everyone has heard of autism, but a much smaller number of people understand what it actually means to be autistic, the difficulties people on the autism spectrum can face and their strengths. Everyone on the spectrum is different and we are reflecting that by telling as many different stories as we can during the campaign.

"With Too Much Information, we set out to change this and to transform public understanding of autism. To make sure our messages were reaching the right people, we developed authentic, original content based on research into the experiences of autistic people and their families."

This campaign is, in essence, about behavioural change, and the charity set its target to increase real understanding of autism by 5 per cent. This might seem low, but is in fact millions when referring to the UK population.

Too Much Information centres around authentic content because it has to resonate with supporters and be true to autism. The campaign was launched with a film, starring 11-year-old Alex Marshall. Its aim was to give people an insight into what can go on inside the mind of a person with autism in a seemingly everyday situation and how they could become overwhelmed by too much information, such as bright lights, loud noises and crowds.

The film proved a hit on social media, gaining more than 56 million views and a million shares. The NSA also launched a virtual reality version of the film, which was made available in shopping centres around the country: about 8,000 people got to experience what life is like in Alex’s shoes.