Last words stir the heart

The 'Last Words' campaign won two golds and one silver at the just concluded Cannes Ad Fest

Age has caught up with her, but not her memory. She gives a vivid account of the last words of a dying woman - who she attended to as a practicing nurse. The words are sharp: "Shamina said that she was scared of darkness. That is all," says the feeble voice in the frame. In another screen grab, a young nurse says that her dying patient simply said sorry, nothing more, nothing less, just sorry again and again. And in yet another frame, a young child on his death bed informs his nurse that he wishes to bid his mother goodbye. The dying patients' last words are being shared by their nurses, not their families. And that is what the campaign that won Medulla Communications two golds and one silver metal in the just concluded Cannes Ad Fest aims to change.

The vignettes that the ads focus on are enough to make one cry. "That is the purpose of the film," says Praful Akali, founder and MD, Medulla Communications, a Mumbai-based healthcare agency that conceptualised and executed the campaign called 'Last Words'. "To make the viewer sit up and take notice of the issue," he says.

The issue here is palliative care, which is about how comfort and dignity can be provided to terminally ill patients and their families. A sensitive subject, it remains a hot topic of debate in the medical world as to whether this is possible or not and whether it is ethical or not. The film was targeted mainly at doctors, urging them to pledge their support for the cause. They could do this by going to a website designed for the purpose after viewing the film.

Medulla and its client the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) realised that there was a need to build awareness among lay consumers too regarding the issue. While doctors could still understand what palliative care was about, lay consumers did not. Therefore keeping it simple rather than technical was important.

"That is where," Amit Akali, chief creative officer, Medulla Communications, Praful's brother says, "A key insight came handy. That most terminally-ill patients utter their final words to nurses and not family members since they are more often than not in intensive care."

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

• Launched in February 2016 for the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC), ‘Last Words’ wants to change the way Indian families and doctors look at care for terminally ill patients
• The ads feature nurses and care givers who are usually the ones to hear the last words spoken by a dying family member; palliative care puts families back in charge
• Medulla won the Gold Lion for the ‘Last Words’ campaign in the ‘Integrated Campaign’ and ‘Digital: Online Video’ sub-categories. This campaign also fetched a Silver Lion (Digital: Social)
• Overall, the campaign generated over 100 million impressions and half a million organic video views, trending third on Twitter
• For its ‘Slums for Worms’ campaign for GlaxoSmithKline, Medulla won a Bronze (Print & poster craft: Art direction) and a Silver Lion (Standard print). The ‘ADHD Symptom Stamps’ campaign for Johnson & Johnson has won two Bronze Lions (Branded content: Live experience and Direct, Promo and Activation)
•  Won the Healthcare Agency of the Year award at Cannes Ad Fest 2016, the first for any Indian agency

This became the basis for the film for the IAPC, which works in the area of palliative care. Over 200 interviews with nurses, practicing and retired, were conducted across India and the most heart-rending words uttered by dying patients became a part of the film.

To ensure doctor and consumer engagement, Medulla released the video on Youtube and other social and digital media platforms. This was done even as the campaign was launched on the ground by the chairperson of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission S R Bannurmath, in the presence of doctors and other dignitaries.

At the launch event itself, which happened earlier this year, a number of doctors pledged support for the cause, says Praful Akali. Even more joined the list after the campaign became viral. An assessment, post launch revealed that 50 per cent of the 100,000 socially active doctors in India had seen the film.

Overall, the campaign generated over 100 million impressions and half a million organic video views, trending third on Twitter, said Amit Akali. "The beauty is that palliative care associations across the world adopted the campaign, sharing it within their network and mailing lists," he says. While Medulla is working at taking the campaign to the next level, the Akali brothers not revealing their plans yet. The movement is expected to continue.

In a four-part series, we look at some of the award-winning work at the Cannes Ad Fest 2016. We begin with Medulla Communications’ campaign for palliative care