Inspiring ad for a Toronto children's hospital

"Sick isn't weak." Toronto's Hospital for Sick Kids has a perceptual challenge with "sick" in their name, so they created a great new ad called VS. that presents their patients and employees as heroes.

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Lori Davison at Sick Kids said:

A campaign of this magnitude has never been attempted in the hospital before. More than 100 staff members helped out either in front of the camera or behind the scenes. Volunteering to be on camera goes above and beyond the call of duty and enabled this very complex commercial to be shot authentically. Approximately 50 patient families also agreed to be filmed. The fact that the commercials are filled with real staff, real parents and real patients adds a special component to the final product. What's more, all of our agency partners involved in this campaign generously did so at deeply discounted rates, even pro bono in some cases, enabling us to produce the campaign with the same modest budget as in previous years and at a fraction of what it would cost in the private sector.

Not everyone is happy. Some have taken issue with autism being listed, and others take issue with the war metaphor. The overall reaction has been positive, though.

SickKids VS: Undeniable (YouTube / SickKids)