BC Children's Hospital Foundation on Space

The resulting campaign, created by Dare Vancouver’s associate creative directors, Addie Gillespie and Mia Thomsett, landed on the stark truth that the BC Children’s Hospital simply did not have enough space to perform the level of care required on an on-going basis. A growing population, bigger operating teams, larger equipment and longer hospital stays are just some of the reasons why a new and larger site is required.

 

To illustrate the issue, the Dare campaign uses optical illusions to visually bring the space shortage to life for potential donors. Gillespie and Thomsett said: "It wasn’t until we toured the hospital that we really understood the problem. We needed to come up with a simple way to demonstrate the hospital’s dire lack of space.”

To create the two broadcast spots, Dare teamed up with OPC FamilyStyle director Miles Jay, as they wanted to work with a production company that would create the illusions in-camera, without special effects. To achieve the optical illusion in the first spot, ‘Hospital Ward’, an Ames Room was created with all the walls and furniture built with skewed angles. In ‘Operating Room’, a hallway was built that used forced perspective, an eight-foot ceiling at the far end and a five-foot ceiling in the foreground, to make it appear as though the people were getting bigger as they came towards the camera. Both sets were built in a large warehouse just outside of Toronto. 

 

Stephen Forgacs, Director of Communications for the BC Children's Hospital Foundation says: "We were in the middle of our capital campaign and needed a message that would resonate with potential donors at all levels, opening the door to conversations regarding the need for a new hospital. Dare seized on a simple truth about our hospital, that we’ve run out of space, and leveraged that to design some very compelling creative."

 

The campaign consists of TV, radio, out of home posters, print and online/mobile banners. The print creative shows hospital staff working in spaces that are half the size of what they truly need, and the media rich online banner ad urges users to complete a simple task – to check a child's temperature by pressing a button. As they scroll over the ad, their cursor becomes excessively large, replicating the feeling of nursing staff that have little room to complete their jobs. 

 

The campaign is now live and will run through to the end of March 2013. For more information visit www.GiveSpace.ca.