UNBRANDED DISEASE AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
How We Unleashed Kids’ Inner Animals to Fight Against Duchenne
Making a movement for good using augmented reality.
Speaker 1:
My brother, Conner, he likes the color red. He doesn’t like Fortnite that much but he likes Mario Kart and he has Duchenne.
Speaker 2:
Boys with Duchenne lose their muscles, they lose their ability to walk and then they lose their ability to use their arms, and then eventually they lose lung function and they need assistance. Then the heart is a muscle as well, and a lot of times that’s the last one to go and that’s when they…[mother begins to cry].
Speaker 3:
Our mission in life is to cure our son and we will do anything it takes.
Speaker 2:
Government funding is low and it’s just a rare disease so it doesn’t hit a large enough number of humans.
Speaker 4:
Although the future is uncertain, we’re inspired every day by Conner’s inner strength. His body may be failing him, but it’s as if he has this powerful beast inside of him that’s trying to defy the disease. The campaign features children tapping into their inner animals to fight against Duchenne. It really helped raise awareness and get everyone involved.
Speaker 3:
Using Instagram and Facebook filters, our friends all participated. They were able to pick a fierce animal and say, ‘we’re fierce against muscular dystrophy for Conner.’ People were sharing it on their stories.
Speaker 4:
We then invited everyone to get fierce against MD at an event to celebrate Conner’s eleventh birthday.
Speaker 2:
The whole town rallied.
Speaker 3:
He walked in with fierce determination into the event and it was our best event yet. We raised more money than we had ever.
Speaker 2:
I just hope and pray that Conner has the happy ending that we want, but right now, we’re still in fight mode.
Speaker 1:
Hopefully he’s going to get a cure. I think he is. I have faith that he will get the cure.
THE CHALLENGE
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an incurable, fatal genetic disorder gradually weakening the body’s muscles, eventually robbing children of the ability to walk, breathe, and even smile. We needed to drive attendance at a yearly fundraising event organized by the parents of Conner Curran, who was diagnosed at age 4.
Fighting Duchenne starts with unleashing your INNER BEAST.
THE SOLUTION
We were inspired by Conner’s inner strength. His body might be failing him, but it’s as if he has this powerful beast inside him that’s trying to defy his disease. Enter Fierce Against MD — a campaign that features children tapping into their inner animals to fight against Duchenne. Even though MD may steal smiles, it can never steal our fierce determination to fight it with all we’ve got. Through outdoor, social media, and custom-made AR filters, we helped drive attendance and donations to a record-breaking, live fundraising event.
The Results
The unbranded disease awareness campaign helped increase funding for Duchenne by 27%.