The ad became the most shared clip on Swedish Youtube after a couple of days. After two weeks the clip had over 2,5 million views from more than 217 countries. The ad has been covered in newspapers and tv-channels from Sweden to China. In fourteen days, the campaign has generated an increase of donations to the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation with 900%.
Creative Execution
The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation knows the importance of advertisement, but their main focus lies in using as much of their funding to cancer research as possible. Therefore the media budget for this campaign was zero Swedish kronors. The campaign relies entirely on having an engaging insight and emotional outtake. The digital billboard was filmed on site. We captured the reactions of everyday commuters and uploaded the film on Youtube.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea
Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group or socioeconomic class. It takes away childhood and affects families. Despite these facts, childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently underfunded. Our brief was to raise awareness and donations to The Swedish Child Hood Cancer Foundation.
Earlier this year, a Swedish shampoo ad caught the attention of commuters by showing a woman’s hair blowing in the wind whenever a train pulled into the station. We decided to make our own version at the same digital billboard on the same metro station. But in our version we took help from Linn, a young girl currently battling her illness. When the train passed by, her wig blew off, thus illustrating the hairloss as a metaphor for being diagnosed with cancer.