Curing Homesickness: Australia rallies to get kids home from hospital sooner with newly launched ‘Mum’s Sause’ film via CHE Proximity
A new national fundraising initiative ‘Curing Homesickness’ created by Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation (SCHF) and advertising agency, CHE Proximity has launched today.
In an Australian first, Curing Homesickness will see children’s hospitals from across Australia raise funds together alongside A-list celebrities and brands like Coles, The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand, Assembly Label, Pasta Pantry, NRL, and eBay. Money raised will fund equipment, care and research to get kids home from hospital sooner.
Curing Homesickness launches with a movement called “Mum’s Sause”. The film is about a young girl in hospital named Ali, who despite all she’s going through, misses her mum’s pasta “Sause”. The film follows the story of how her brother spots a handwritten note from Ali who has misspelt the word ‘sauce’. The note becomes a social post, a social post becomes an internet sensation, and “Mum’s Sause” becomes a symbol that unites brands, celebrities and the community to cure homesickness. Ali’s story isn’t real, but homesickness is, as the story represents the hundreds of thousands of kids in Australian hospitals every year.
The film features Australian celebrity cameos from Rose Byrne, Lee Lin Chin, Hamish Blake, G Flip, Mia Freedman and news presenters from Channel 9 and 10. Other celebrities have also joined the mission including Nicole Kidman and NRL sports teams, who have all rallied around the cause to help raise awareness for the movement. Demonstrating the power of social media, it is hoped that life will imitate art with all of Australia helping spread the message about curing homesickness.
Says Nicola Stokes, CEO, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation: “We know that kids get homesick when they are in hospital, but homesickness isn’t always recognised as a serious complication or illness, and this is the first time it has been the focus of a fundraising campaign to address it.
“We developed the idea because our Foundation was exploring how we could make more of a difference to the emotional wellbeing of sick kids, as well as raising funds for vital equipment, ground-breaking research and excellent clinical care. When I shared our idea with colleagues at other hospital foundations across Australia, they wanted to be involved and they immediately offered to collaborate with us to deliver national impact for every child and every community.”
Homesickness is the distress or impairment caused by separation from home and severe homesickness in children can lead to social and behavioural problems, anxiety and coping issues, and feelings of helplessness. Studies show that severe homesickness symptoms actually worsen in children the longer they are away from home. The cure for homesickness is home.
50% of hospitalised children suffer from moderate to severe levels of homesickness. By shifting the focus from the medical condition to addressing homesickness (emotional wellbeing), it provides a single-minded approach to fundraising that can unite all hospitals to unlock new donations. No matter the illness, injury and ailment these kids come in with, Homesickness is something they all share. If Australia can rally together and cure it, the hospitals are well on the way to beating any sickness, and getting kids home where they belong.
Says David Halter, chief strategy officer at CHE Proximity: “This project started two years ago with a request from Nicola and the board to help increase donations.
“During our hospital visits, we noticed a simple insight: Kids who are in hospital for a particular sickness also have another sickness that Australians are currently unaware of – homesickness.”
Says Ant White, chief creative officer at CHE Proximity: “Mum’s Sause is designed to not only be part of culture but inject itself into it. We are purposely blurring the line between reality and fiction. Apart from Ali and her family, who are based on the stories of millions of Aussie families, everything in the film is real – Coles made Mum’s Sause, Assembly Label printed tees, Disney are hosting special screenings, Pasta Pantry are donating parts of their menu, eBay are contributing in a big way too. These are just some of the ways people can become part of the story. Even the influencers, newsreaders and journalists in the film will be posting, sharing and airing content today mirroring the story.
“People want to be part of good stories today. It’s a form of social currency. We wanted to create a movement that allowed people to join in, and make a real difference, not just a campaign that pulls at the heartstrings. But we’re sure it will do that too.”
By raising money to tackle homesickness head on for the first time, the Curing Homesickness initiative will be helping every child in our partner hospitals, ensuring the very best equipment, research and services are available to get them back home sooner.
Corporate Partners
Coles have made “Mum’s Sause” a reality, creating a pasta sauce with a Health Star Rating of 4. Jars of Coles Mum’s Sause are available to buy from today and will be stocked in more than 800 stores across Australia, 50 cents from every jar go to Curing Homesickness Mum’s Sause Bolognese which contains no added sugar and no artificial colours.
Says Lisa Ronson, chief marketing officer of Coles: “As soon as we heard about the Curing Homesickness initiative, the ‘Mum’s Sause’ idea, and that we could make a real difference to children’s lives we knew we just had to be a part of the launch.
“There are so many things that children in hospital miss from home, but it’s often the simple pleasures like mum or dad’s home-cooking that matter most. That is why Coles is so honoured that we have been able to put a product on our shelves that is not only good for you, but is also doing good for kids around the country.”
Disney’s Marvel Studios The Avengers Infinity War and Endgame back-to-back sessions will be held across Australia on Sat Aug 3rd at select Event and Village cinemas. 100% of ticket sales will be donated to the hospitals.
Locations include:
● NSW: Event Cinemas George Street
● QLD: Event Cinemas Chermside
● SA: Event Cinemas Marion
● WA: Event Cinemas Innaloo
● VIC: Village Cinemas Jam Factory
Assembly Label has released an exclusive and limited-edition range of ‘Homesick’ t-shirts for men, women and children available in-store and online, with all proceeds going towards Curing Homesickness.
Pasta Pantry’s Sydney stores are raising awareness and donating funds from the sale of their flagship pasta and lasagne dishes in support of the Curing Homesickness initiative.
The activity is supported by a heavy PR presence and donated TV, cinema, outdoor, and digital all reminding Australians how kids in hospital are also homesick.
CHE Proximity worked with all brands and media partners including Network Nine, Network Seven, ARN, Nova, MCN, Verizon, NewsCorp, oOh!, QMS and JCDecaux, to secure donated media space. Other elements of the launch include a 30” and 15” cut downs and a social, PR and influencer campaign.
Donations
Money raised will help fund critical medical equipment and technology, research, support programs to distract and entertain kids in hospital, enhance hospital wards and rooms and more. It will also be used to help cure homesickness in kids in hospital by creating a home-like environment within hospitals, developing services to connect kids to home or support programs to distract, entertain and engage kids during their stay.
Hospitals
Children’s hospital charities across Australia have joined the movement, including:
● ACT: Canberra Hospital Foundation for the Centenary Hospital for Women & Children Hospital
● NSW: Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation for The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick
● QLD: The Prince Charles Hospital Foundation
● SA + NT: Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation
● TAS: Royal Hobart Hospital
● VIC: Monash Health Foundation for Monash Children’s Hospital
● WA: Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation
To get involved and donate online, please visit CuringHomesickness.org.
Follow on:
Instagram: @curinghomesickness
Facebook: /CuringHomesickness
Twitter: @CHomesickness
Use the hashtag: #CuringHomesickness
Sydney Children’s Hospital:
Nicola Stokes – CEO
Mark Stewart – General Manager of Fundraising
Tanya Sarina – Head of Health Promotion
Susan Wynne – Director of Development
Lisa Woolfjones – head of partnerships
Agency: CHE Proximity
David Halter – Chief Strategy Officer
Mariana Rice – Client Partner
Albert Olsen – Account Executive
Ant White – Chief Creative Officer
Glen Dickson – Executive Creative Director
Sam Dickson – Creative Director
Cameron Bell – Creative Director
Holly Alexander – Director, Strategic Production
Darren Cole – Head of Design
Vanessa Saporito – Senior Designer
Callum McGregor – Designer
Georgia Wright – Director – PR
Judy Chung – Senior Account Director – PR
Courtney Kovacevic – Senior Account Manager – PR
Elizabeth Lonsdale – Investment Manager
Anna Horan – Head of Editorial & Social
Sophie Doyle – Social Lead
Annisah Ibrahim – Senior Social Creative
Henry Clarke – Social Creative
Shayne Simpson – Head of Print Production
Avery Clark – Production Manager
Katrina Ansford – Digital Producer
Production Company – Revolver/Will O’Rourke
Directing Collective: The Glue Society
Director: Pete Baker
Managing Director / Executive Producer – Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer – Pip Smart
Executive Producer/Producer – Jasmin Helliar
Producer – Serena Paull & Ian Iveson
Director of Photography – Geoffrey Simpson
2nd Unit DOP – Jordan Maddocks
Production Designer – Nicki Gardner
Casting – Citizen Jane Casting
Editor – The Glue Society
Grade & Online – Heckler
Design & Animation – Heckler
Music – Anton at Trailer Media
Sound – Song Zu
57 Comments
The epitome of putting cart before horse. You’ve literally built a case study for a small charity and released it as a film. This makes me ad sad. I thought CHE was above this but… Sigh
Creating the case study BEFORE the case study – that’s brilliant.
Something about this leaves a weird taste in my mouth (pardon the pun). It’s just awkward, over the top in parts, under delivering on emotion in others. Well done on trying to create something for a worthy cause, but it just felt it was lacking something and it was done for the wrong reasons. Didn’t feel like CHEp kind of creative.
It’s the same with all of these “buy-out-product-and-we’re-donating-money-from-the-sales-ideas” If you’re such a generous brand why don’t you donate the money without having people buying a bunch of stuff?
What happens if nobody buys? Would coles donate absolutely nothing?
What’s their cap? How much money have they budgeted to donate?
Nothing new here unfortunately. Just another brand trying to sell products by donating a small amount to a good cause.
I can’t understand why the profits from the pasta sauce weren’t donated. A measly 50c per bottle? This ad makes me feel gross. So vacuous and insincere.
Geeez, you guys are being way too harsh. I thought this was brilliant. Well done CHE.
Reminiscent of this brilliant satire of 20 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CLxZ4Auy6c
Beautiful idea and for a worthy cause.
However I can’t help but think how people will feel when they hear the entire story that’s drawn them in is fiction. How did all of these personalities that ‘reported’ on the fictional post see it? What does this say for their journalistic integrity? Where does the fiction end and the true begin? And will there be a real case study about this case study? Is this a dream within a dream? So many questions…
Im so confused by this? It was kind of interesting, then right at the end it tells me the whole thing isn’t real, but that i should still donate? Am i missing something?
Omg this is dreadful. Just feels so…. faked. Oh that’s right – because it is faked. For emotion to work it has to be authentic. No doubt CHEP make the best case studies in Australia, but turning one into an actual ad just feels super gross. I am cringing.
In the past we use to fake the ads now we just fake everything.
This is so far from the beautiful insights and craft that CHE had with the hearing tests and the like. This stinks of scam, I’m sure it’s not, but it looks and smells like it. It’s sad that a creative can suggest an idea that’s literally a case study and it gets up. No emotion, no leading thought. Maybe CHE has had their time, I hope not because I liked their old stuff
I mean really. Anonymous blogs and the trolls.
Sure it’s a case study, not a 30′ spot. BUT they made real products, that solved a real problem, based off a great insight, that made lives better. Getting Coles etc to lift a finger is a massive genuine outcome that is more substantial than a pointless TV spot..
Jumped The Shark and friends, get back to your pointless FMCG ad that will do nothing for anyone.
It’s a children’s hospital.
WTF is wrong with this industry.
In an age when it’s unacceptable to comment anonymously, I’ll stick my head out.
I think this work May have been done for the right reason. But I also think this work is wrong on many levels, the main reason being that it lacks any sense of emotion.
You could have easily made an emotional film about Mums Sauce in 30secs, then you could have brought that sauce to supermarkets through PR, then you could have made a case study summarising a beautiful campaign. This seems like you jammed it all together without any real creative thought and you’ve been left holding a weird shaped jar of sauce that doesn’t taste right. You’ve obviously spent a lot of money and called in a lot of favours to make this happen so we’ll done to the producers. But as a piece of creative this is awkward and misses the mark.
I wish my agency made this. Cheers.
Nobody would be having a crack if they’d simply surveyed sick children, found something real that one of them misses about home and then thrown the weight of coles, Rose Byrne et al behind it to make it happen. Why did they have to fake it? Just takes all the authenticity and emotion out of it. Feels horribly, horribly cynical, like a real wish from a real child wasn’t the right ‘fit’ for their advertising concept.
It’s really well put together but it’s completely lacking emotion. But yes, they should have put a bit of graft in and found something real. It will be there but they didn’t bother to find it. It’s a shame because the insights etc are all there. I bet you by Cannes case study time next year it will be based on a real story.
I think this is a fresh take on it…
Got my attention for sure! Looking forward to see the results coming out of this.
Curing homesickness by evoking memories of mums sauce? Wouldn’t this make the poor kids even more homesick?
So. They created a fake story. Pretended it went viral and then made the fake groundswell of that fake story an actual thing that you can do to help actual people??? I’m normally a fan of CHEP but this is pants
Because at a time when fakery in every aspect of our lives is being slowly normalised, it is galling to see it applied to a genuine need: helping sick children.
If the added burden of homesickness is such a big issue, why don’t all these brands get together and form a pool of money to make it easier for families (especially remote ones) to be with their children for longer periods.
Or simply make a cash donation, let your name be PR’d and then shut up instead of letting an ad agency try to manipulate the whole thing to its own benefit.
Hi everyone, Nicola here – I am the CEO of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.
I am really excited to see the Curing Homesickness campaign live, and the positive feedback we’ve received. Then I read the above…
Homesickness is real, and whether you like our campaign or not it is raising money for seriously sick kids in hospitals around Australia.
We appreciate every donation…no matter who it comes from?
Please get involved in a positive way.
Buy lots of Mum’s Sause from Coles.
Buy an Assembly Tee.
Attend the Marvel Studio Screenings.
Visit Pasta Pantry (Sydney).
Donate directly so Curing Homesickness can fund the research, care and equipment needed to get kids home from hospital sooner.
Good on you Nicola. Small minded ad-people working behind the cloak of anonymity is the exact opposite of the work you do. Irrespective of anyone’s opinion of the campaign it will raise money where there was once none. How can that not be a positive thing? I wish you all the success.
@Nicola You have to take the positive and negative feedback into consideration. I think what people are critical of is that doesn’t feel authentic to them which in turn won’t provide you as much sales as you desire.
I came into the office today and found a jar of the “sause” on my desk with a note from our Management. Then the CHEP team had a all agencies video conference where they explained it beautifully. It really was great to see the hearts and brains of lots of clever CHEP people on show. Made me jealous and proud all at the same time. We all know the amount of work it takes to get this sort of thing done. Good on them and good on Nicola for supporting the agency. Now can we stop being dickheads and help out the kids please?
You have to take the positive and negative feedback into consideration. I think what people are critical of is that doesn’t feel authentic to them which in turn won’t provide you as much sales as you desire.
Can’t believe no one has noticed, but you misspelled ‘sauce’. Very embarrassing mistake.
Absolutely a good thing to have done. And Nicola what a brave client you are for buying it and then heading to this blog to comment. My two cents for what it’s worth, and I suppose that’s what a comment section is for, the idea feels like it is the combination of award worthy executions but missing the key ingredient ‘why’. Why does this need to look like a semi-real case study? Why would you need to get news clips recorded prior to the release of a concept? Why you invent a story? The amount of effort that clearly went into this, it shouldn’t have been hard to find a worthy story worth hijacking? I don’t mean this to be rude or cynical, it’s just how it comes across to me.
Love it. Well done CHEP, a new force in advertising, and congratulations Nicola.
Accusing this idea of being fake is nonsensical. For a start the celebrities involved are actually demonstrating their support for the charity by actively taking part. By participating they are proving their endorsement of the cause. And rather than wait or hope for a campaign to slowly gather support, this idea very smartly showcases very real ways that individuals can make a dramatic difference with immediate effect. It accelerates donations and gets kids home sooner. I suspect that was the brief. So a very real solution to a very real problem.
Bravo Nicola
Everything about this is vomit inducing.
– Cast child to pretend they are sick
– Donate 50c of profits via sale of sauce
– Work with unethical clothing company
– Cringeworth “before the fact” celeb endorsement.
– Women don’t all cook. Men do too. Why stereotype.
– Bore me for 3 and a bit minutes via an award film submission that has no emotion.
– Spending 2 years to get here doesn’t mean you throw any sense of subtlety to the wind.
In sum, if you care about a great hospital doing great things, donate all your profits for x amount of time. Good causes deserve to be supported sincerely. This campaign is anything but.
I think the people defending this work are missing the point. I’m very happy to donate to the Sydney Children’s Hospital. Everyone who works their are super heroes. They do tremendous things and deal with real heartbreaking stories every day. No one is denying that.
This is why the work annoys me so much. It’s offensive to the hospital, the kids and the viewer. In an attempt to emotionally hook the audience the agency made the decision to fake a story! Why? There would have been thousands of real stories they could have used. But no, none of them ticket the tidy box of the fake mum’s sauce story.
I was liking the film until that one killer line came up. It’s a complete cheat. Anyone can make a story up and then say ‘it’s not real BUT similar stories happen everyday’. Just pick a real story then!
You let the product get in the way of reality.
I’m sorry to say but the agency should never have gone this far. Smells like a bunch of desperate creative men trying to win awards to prove themselves.
You will no doubt suck some people in, and I really hope for the sake of the hospital donations increase because the children deserve better.
Mums sauce – in 2019? Really?
This is a strange strange short film. Stick to data CHE, leave the creative to the creative agencies.
Feels like I gotta go have a shower.
Love the ‘sause’ idea, love the cause, appreciate the huge amount of work that went in to this… but authentic media engagement / harnessing of genuine case studies is not something the ad leaders in this business get… It all has to be highly orchestrated… You don’t buy PR or create fake case studies… you just don’t, boys…
*sause
This case study is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the agencies imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Regardless of the motivation of the agency for making this, the main issue is that as a creative idea, I find it confusing.
Take away the fictional case study and what are you left with?
A jar of sauce on the shelf of Coles that donates money to a charity.
Ok, that’s very commendable. But as a creative idea it’s not original.
And then there’s the other ways to donate money, the back to back movie screening, t-shirt, pasta pantry, ebay.
All have absolutely no attachment to the Mums Sause product, so why shoehorn them into the film?
It just doesn’t make sense.
All that fake PR to then attempt to PR something?
Remember when Sainsbury sold the chocolate from their emotive and tear jerking film about Christmas during the war? Proceeds went to returned servicemen and women.
It was good. But it was just a film with a product extension. This on the other hand is utterly confusing. Is it a case study? An ad? A PR plan? A product? Or is it little bits of all of that making up a rather clumsy, hollow 3 minute piece of content.
It just lacks proper creative.
I love this idea, its intent and out come?
But why the fake story and typo in sauce?
Is this an ad industry blog? I thought of all people, advertising people would understand the idea of a ‘fake story’ AKA ‘Advertising’! Odd… For what it’s worth, I think it’s Brilliant. CHEP getting better and better.
Fake news, fake advertising……please stop.
Neck and neck with the heart foundation ad for most hollow, tone deaf, award-chasing idea of the year. Yet another nail in advertising’s coffin in the graveyard of public opinion.
CHEP cannot win. If they used a real story, they would copy criticism for being exploitative. So they use a fictional story, which they reveal is fictional, and provide images of kids who are unwell and who the campaign is about. They found the balance in this ad.
If you have concerns about how much Coles are donating, then take it up with them.
When you consider what these families are going through and what this ad stands for, it creates emotion and a call to action.
Coles and CHEP have taken a stand, well done.
Put your names to your comments, it carries a lot more weight, you gutless trolls.
CHE lives in a self inflated ego bubble these days. Go out and eat some real sauce, and stop making contrived work that makes everyone else sick. You need to get over yourselves. Leave charities alone. Focus on making retail. I remember when Jason Ross worked at that agency it had heart, now you’re all trying so hard, you’re missing the point. Don’t try to be good, just be good. Don’t try to be real, just be real. Simple, honest work is what is required for this kind of thing. Advertising mutating so much it can’t even stand back and look at itself it’s so far up its own backside. You’re missing the point CHE. Time to stand back, get over yourselves and be objective before you blow a tire
Those who cannot do, teach. Those who cannot teach, troll. Marty Drill is right.
FAKE NEWS! SAD!!
I recently had to take my son to a hospital because he was experiencing dizziness and muscle cramps. He was in there for a few days while they were running a few tests and he was really missing home, particularly at bed-time. It turns out it wasn’t serious, he was just suffering from a salt deficiency (hyponatremia). So we proceeded with treatment. The poor kid had to be hooked up to a saline drip.
I wanted to bring him home, so we took an aggressive treatment approach.
Sure enough, after a quick scan of this Campaign Brief comment section, he was cured.
Thats awful. Its a fake case study. Something this industry knows too well. Will do nothing for this worthy charity. A real story would get ground swell. This is just a fake and the only fake results will be created
While others have commented on the creative execution, to be fair I think the strategy and brief were somewhat misaligned. As a member of the general public I care about funding sick kids….. because I care about sick kids getting better! Curing homesickness is a sideline benefit.
If CHEP wanted to connect through the emotional pull of kids feeling homesick, it would be better to do a campagin targeted to those who are impacted by children being homesick- their parents and carers and attach it to a trigger point. Like when your child runs to you for a hug after a long day or when something bad happens. Get Cuddly fabric softener to sponsor it and boom, you have a synergistic campaign that has the potnetial to be more authentic and less contrived to win awards.
Sorry CHEP strategy
Vomit.
I think this is a beautiful idea by a passionate agency and client, it just feels needlessly complicated in execution. In the spirit of constructive feedback, a simpler way to bring this concept to life may have been:
1. Taken a real children’s hospital.
2. Made unique pasta sauces for each child patient with their respective mums’ names on the label (everyone’s mum makes the best).
3. Delivered it to the real kids and filmed the “stunt”.
4. Promoted the stunt and product with their attached celebrity talent.
5. Sold product in Coles across the country.
6. Donate all proceeds to cause.
Never forgetti
To exit without the answers to the difficulties you have sorted out through this guide is a critical case, as well as the kind which could have badly affected my entire career if I discovered your website.