The Kids’ Cancer Project launches new integrated campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney for children who don’t want to be angels
To pay tribute to the defiant spirit of children and young adolescents with cancer, The Kids’ Cancer Project has launched ‘I Don’t Want To Be An Angel’, a campaign via Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney to rally Australians to get behind the urgent need to find better ways of treating the disease, in time for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
The campaign highlights how every year almost a thousand children and young adolescents are diagnosed with cancer in Australia. By focusing on science, solutions and survival, The Kids’ Cancer Project exists to improve the outcomes for these children, via much needed advances in medical research.
Says Owen Finegan, CEO, The Kids’ Cancer Project: “Facing this disease takes strength and courage, but overcoming it requires constant scientific advancement. Our job is to fund and enable scientists to discover the best research to give these kids better chances of survival and improved long-term outcomes.”
Says Linda Fagan, head of marketing and community relations, The Kids’ Cancer Project: “We needed a campaign that could shake-up the apparent apathy around backing science as the solution to childhood cancer, while also showing the strength it takes to live with this disease. We need people to realise that new research brings new hope for these kids.”
Says Rebecca Carrasco, executive creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi: “Sick children are children. They don’t want to go to hospital, suffer nausea, or live with fear. They may have no choice but to undergo unpleasant treatment, but they certainly don’t want to be angels. This idea is about keeping that defiant spirit alive.”
The campaign includes television, print, digital and social, and has launched to coincide with September Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, with the aim of driving donations to help sick kids get in front of cancer.
Client: The Kids’ Cancer Project
CEO: Owen Finegan
Head of Marketing and Community Relations: Linda Fagan
Creative Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney
Chief Creative Officer: Mike Spirkovski
Executive Creative Director: Rebecca Carrasco
Creative Director: Piero Ruzzene & Flavio Fonseca
Head of Broadcast: Renata Barbosa
Integrated Producer: Simon Davis
Planning Director: Peter Pippen
Group Account Director: Libby Weston-Webb
Account Executive: Jamie Fairfield
Production Company: Playtime
Director: Stef Smith
Producer: Tom Slater
Post Production: The Editors
Sound: Squeak E. Clean Studios
Photographer: Gary Heery
Producer: Matt Chee
Production Company: Chee Productions
Retouching: Cream Electric Art
20 Comments
Yuck. Transparently disgraceful exploitation of sick kids in search of award metal.
That film is very strange!
No doubt this will be pulled from air immediately
I expect this is going to get people taking. Maybe even donating.
Nice.
It’s simply being honest and realistic. I love it.
I spent at least 20 minutes trying to get my screaming child to stand still for her flu shot. She bit me.
Geez it’s powerful, well done. Hope it raises a shitload of money for the cause
This is brilliant. Clear story and great casting.
agency and production staff wrote comments on this article? This campaign is such poor taste
I don’t know what to say. Sometimes trying to win (or maybe even winning) an award comes at a cost to the creators that is not at first self-evident. I found this to be disturbing, distasteful and dystopian.
The cause and ambition is great but the execution is basic AF
Beautifully executed. Well done Saatchi Sydney!
Well done, this is quite powerful. Assuming that this was a real brief, for a real client, who really wanted work that would cut-through and actually do something to raise money for better ways of helping these kids, assuming this is all true, I think this is a really bold approach. And these kids deserve a bold approach. I hope it gets the same reaction out in the world that it’s getting on here. Love it or hate it, if it gets people talking about kids cancer, it’s working.
Just thinking about childhood cancer is tough. Well done for being brave and showing another side to the reality of this insidious disease.
I don’t find this as offensive or off putting as the above comments. However, I do think it’s just really poor craft and not a very interesting execution of a somewhat interesting idea.
An interesting angle on the topic to say the least. Usually these ad’s are quiet and sombre, trying to pull at the emotion from an obscure angle, but this is straight up in your face reality of what really happens.
I think the cut through will work but it might shock a few people.
What’s with the awful child actors? Cringe.
I love it. For all the right reasons.
I expected more from Saatchi. What’s going on there?