Client: SickKids Foundation
Product: SickKids Hospital
Title: Air Time
Media: Cossette Media, OMD
Country: Canada
Date Of Campaign: May 14, 2018

Background: People are surprised to learn Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the single most common fatal genetic disease among Canadian children and young adults. Despite this terrible fact, CF remains a somewhat hidden disease, one that most Canadians don’t understand or see the urgent need for research. We needed to find a compelling way to show Canadians, during CF month, how devastating this disease is and ask them to join SickKids hospital in fighting for a cure.

Idea: Give a voice to those who can’t take air for granted.CF destroys the lungs and robs patients of AIR, something we all take completely for granted. No one gives any thought to air – unless it’s taken away from you, and that’s exactly what CF does to kids across Canada. Our idea was to introduce SickKids Airtime. A simple website, sickkidsfreeair.com, was created where we gave companies a choice, they could make a direct donation or they could donate airtime to help spread the word. We produced custom radio ads for each corporate partner, featuring the amazing talents of different CF patients. In each spot the kids thanked the corporate partner for their airtime donation, explained the debilitating effects of CF, the work being done at SickKids to help and asked all Canadians for their support to help find a cure. Radio was the perfect medium for our message. You could hear the kids struggle to catch their breath as they read the scripts. Their performances were emotionally powerful and extremely effective at demonstrating exactly why broader support is needed.

Results: TELUS, Hasbro, Mercedes Toronto and McDonald’s Canada answered the call and gave up their airtime. During CF month the spots were heard over 275 times delivering over one million impressions.By using the donated airtime of other brands and some awesome talent we were able to spread our message about this fatal genetic disease.