FRONT LINES OF CARE
Campaign at Sunnybrook aims to capture the grit, courage and resilience of patients,
It’s a place where people are, literally, fighting for life.
That’s why the Toronto hospital Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre tapped two internationally renowned war photographers to shoot its latest branding campaign called “Where Impossible Becomes I’m Possible.”
Shot in real time, it aims to capture the grit, courage and resilience of patients, and the determination of staff fighting seemingly unbeatable odds, in a hospital that is recognized worldwide as a leader in patient care, research and education.
“We wanted to document in an unvarnished, unfiltered, way exactly what happens at the front lines of Sunnybrook,” says Pam Ross, the executive vicepresident and chief operating officer of Sunnybrook Foundation, which is the hospital’s fundraising arm. “We didn’t want an ad photographer. We didn’t want to take an artful approach. We wanted a literal, objective, clear and straightforward documentation of reality.”
Photojournalists Ron Haviv and Christopher Morris spent a week capturing more than 10,000 images on “the front lines of impossible” in a hospital that focuses on cancer, heart and vascular issues, high-risk pregnancies and newborn care, and image-guided brain therapies.
“Our patients are the sickest of the sick,” Ross explains. “The other half of what Sunnybrook is about is we discover, create and invent life-saving interventions.”
This is highlighted in the campaign’s video, featuring dramatic black and white photographs accompanied by the voice over: “Bring us Stage 4. Bring us one pound, six ounces. Bring us third-degree. Bring us your world turned upside down … Bring us your worst and we’ll give you our best.”
The campaign is aimed at building awareness about Sunnybrook and helping its fund- raising efforts — each year it strives to raise $60 million for the ongoing needs of the hospital. When asked how much the campaign cost, Sunnybrook said it’s tough to come up with an actual dollar figure because it received a lot of in-kind support from people who donated time and resources.
The hospital worked with advertising agency No Fixed Address on the campaign, which will run in print, TV and digital media throughout the year. Initially, they reached out to two Canadian photojournalists, but neither was available, so they asked Haviv and Morris, award-wining photographers and founding members of the photo agency VII, based in New York City.
Haviv, the lead photographer on this project, is known for raising awareness about hu- man rights issues and documenting conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
“A front line doesn’t necessarily have to have someone with a gun,” Haviv says. “There are people fighting battles — be it patients or doctors, in this case — and it’s life or death …What I felt was this constant fight to survive and get out of there alive, and better than when they walked in.”
He says he’s “always overwhelmed” when people allow a photographer to be present during crucial moments in their lives. In part, he says, that’s why the photo of a woman reacting with utter relief and joy to how well cancer treatment is going, is among his favourite images.
“This campaign, while under the guise of advertising, is still working within that idea of showing the world what’s happening in a place like Sunnybrook and what’s going through the minds of both the staff and patients. And, trying to enforce the idea about the importance of health care.
“These type of campaigns, where you kind of combine the idea of journalism with raising awareness through the vehicle of advertising, is something that can be incredibly successful. And I hope that it will be.”
Branding expert Brent Barr, an instructor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Retail Management, says the campaign successfully taps into an issue we care about, health care.
“They are separating themselves on skill and experience,” Barr says. “And they’re doing it through a very gritty, very thought-provoking campaign.”
He says from a psychological perspective, the gritty images will raise the stakes in the eyes of viewers, forcing them to stop and look — an impressive feat in a world where people are bombarded with between 30,000 and 50,000 messages a day.
“From a marketing perspective, I give them full marks,” he says. “This is going to raise the awareness of what separates (Sunnybrook) from everybody else.”