Ten young adults, aged between 18 and 40 years, find out they have cancer. This happens in Israel every single day. Sadly, the country’s support system doesn’t recognize the cohorts of this age group as a population that has special needs. In fact, the situation is quite the opposite. Many youngsters that are just about to start their adult lives—for some that means starting a family or beginning their professional career—suddenly discover that getting cancer means ‘getting stuck’.
“That’s all, folks!” says the Israeli society. Why? Because young cancer patients—even the ones who are recovering after therapy—can’t get a mortgage in the country, female cancer patients are not told to freeze their eggs, and around 60% of these people are not hired back to work. For them, getting cancer simply means ‘getting stuck’.
The Stop Cancer association wants to help change this dire situation. That’s why the institution has worked with creative agency BBR Saatchi & Saatchi Israel, which happily joined the initiative with some amazing, and creative, ideas. Together, the partners want to offer a network of support to cancer patients. Therefore, in honor of the first ‘Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week,’ the duo launched #The_Cancer_That_Stuck_Me campaign.
The successful movement highlights the fact that while a normal 20-something-year-old is ready to finally start their life, buy their first apartment, move forward with their life, and basically become independent, another person who is of the same age but was recently diagnosed with cancer gets stuck. After having to confront the disease and recovering, buying an apartment can still prove to be an impossible dream, as such a person is not eligible for any funding.
To support the initiative, Stop Cancer invited people to figuratively freeze for a couple of minutes – and representing ‘getting stuck’. Live prime television broadcasts froze, live radio broadcasts got stuck as did TV Promos, movie trailers, and YouTube pre-rolls. All these suddenly became a part of the large project. Even Israeli President Mr. Reuven Rivlin voiced his position in support of the association’s goal.
Check out the video below to see how the campaign unfolded and how people—were they local celebrities or just regular folk—all decided to get stuck for a couple of seconds to speak about a subject that should concern us all, not just the patients and their families. And not just in Israel…
Credits:
Client: Stop Cancer
Agency: BBR Saatchi & Saatchi Israel
Chief Executive Officer: Ben Muskal
Chief Creative Officer: Yaron Perel
Creative Director: Kobi Cohen
Art Director: Gali Divon
Account Supervisor: Moran Darzi
Account Executive: Adva Aviad
Media Strategy Manager: Ronit Shekel
Marcom Director: Eva Hasson
VP Content & Production: Iris Yisraeli
Producers: Livnat Alon
Photographer: Ron Kedmi
Video Photographer: Leehou Porat
Video Editor: Tom Lin
Original Music: Yaya Cohen Aharonov
Studio BBR Manager: Yaron Keinan
Studio BBR: Zehava Gonen Greenberg, Masha Varshitsky, Noam Carmel, Jenny Gindus, Eyal Vinitzer, Gabi Levi Elkayam, Robert Mizikovsky
Stop Cancer Team:
Marketing & Strategic Manager: Adi Muggia
Community & social network Manager: Yifat Mor
Minisite Content Manager & copywriter: Sharon Shinar
Minisite Technical operator: Liran Rozen (Anova company)
Tal Center non-profit organization Team:
CEO & Stop Cancer project manager: Shira Segal Kuperman
Chief Executive Officer of Foreign relations & resources developing: Saar Amir
Operation& publicity manager: Shani Adelshtein
Tal Center Founders: Zohar & Yankale Yakobson
Ben Horin & Alexandrovitz Public Relations Team:
Head of Public Sector Department: Amit Melnik
Team leader: Ortal Elias
Media consultant: Yuval Mor