AISM (the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Society) - PortrAIts

The project was commissioned by AISM, the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Society, whose mission is to help people who suffer from Multiple Sclerosis.

Even if in Italy more than 140000 people suffer from multiple sclerosis, it is not a well-known disease. For this reason, AISM asked us to realize an impactful event to make Italians more aware of Multiple Sclerosis.

This disease has so many different symptoms that it is hard to represent and explain it, so our main objective was to find a way to raise awareness on Multiple Sclerosis catching people’s attention.

Idea

On National Multiple Sclerosis Week, AISM has changed how Multiple Sclerosis looks like, finally making the MS symptoms visible with the help of artificial intelligence, and displaying them so that all passers-by could see them. We also gave voice to all the people with MS in Italy: thanks to the website portraitsm.it they could send their symptoms and show them off, becoming part of the digital gallery.

Strategy

Our target is very broad. In fact, we turned to the millions of people who still didn't know about multiple sclerosis and couldn't understand what those who have to face it every day feel. At the same time, we talked to people affected by the disease, to encourage them to talk about their symptoms without fear and remind them that they are not alone.

The campaign started with an exhortation/Key message based on the insight:

Multiple sclerosis is often invisible. It's time to show it off.

Execution

We collected thousands of stories from people with MS and, thanks to a generative text-to-image artificial intelligence, turned them into images impossible to ignore. On National Multiple Sclerosis Week, from the 30th of May to the 6th of June, millions of people were able to see what was previously invisible, thanks to an open-air exhibition in several cities and a digital gallery, where people with MS from all over Italy could showcase their invisible symptoms just by sending their symptom and their picture, becoming part of PortrAIts.