Already the recipient of three Lions at this year’s Cannes Awards and a Grand Award at the New York Festivals, the controversial campaign by Publicis Amsterdam entitled I’m now deceased for the Dutch ALS Foundation received a Silver Effie Award for its commercial effectiveness.
Little is known about the cause of ALS (which is often known as motor neurone disease elsewhere). The disease is incurable and investment in clinical research is low.
The campaign follows a secret project that filmed and documented sufferers of the disease from 2009. The purpose was that participating patients and their loved ones became ambassadors to raise awareness, even though the former would no longer be able to benefit from medical advances.
The films were then shown following the death of the patients – making national news, the main TV talk show, press coverage, alongside outdoor poster and social media activity.
The award, which was in the Awareness Campaigns category, was presented on November 15 at the Amsterdam Convention Factory. A full-day event themed ‘creativity can change the world’ was followed by the awards’ gala.
In their summary, the Effie judges described the campaign as a: “Robust, handsome case in which the communication made âÂÂâÂÂthe difference. I’m now deceased is a controversial campaign with guts. The jury admired the sharp insight and good preparation of the campaign.”
Since the campaign started awareness has increased significantly and “the number of donations to ALS Foundation Netherlands has soared”, going up 500 per cent in the first three months.