#ToughDecisions
MSF
Issue 33 | December 2014
Agency
TBWA Hunt Lascaris South Africa
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Peter Khoury Creative Director: George Low, Peter Khoury Copywriter: Lauren Mostert Art Director: Candice Mcleroth
Production Team
Production House: Darling Director: Jeana Theron Executive Producer: Melina McDonald Executive Producer: Lorraine Smit Producer: Bryony Webster Art Director: Lauren Wilensky DOP: Clive De Klerk Editing House: Deepend Post Editor: Marcel Mouton Post Production: Fresh VFX Post Production Producer: Stuart Botha Operator: Bradley Glossup Audio Studio: Sterling Sound Audio Engineer: Lorens Persson
Other Credits
Agency Producer: Sandra Gomes Account Director: Vanessa Maselwa Agency Strategist: Travis Spence
Date
October 2014
Background
Very few South Africans were aware and involved in supporting humanitarian work internationally. In surveys MSF SA undertook in 2009, 2011 and 2013 only about 50% of adults in 7 metropolitan areas could identify at least one organisation providing international humanitarian assistance.
The aim was to make South Africans more aware of medical humanitarian work and how they could help save lives by supporting MSF with donations.
Idea
MSF hoped to recruit 10,000 new regular donors through the campaign and help ensure their medical humanitarian work remained independent, impartial and neutral and delivered to people who needed it most when they were caught in crises.
#ToughDecisions was a visibility campaign which employed TV commercials and social media to capture South Africans' attention and put them in the position of MSF medics on the frontlines where life and death decisions have to be made in a split second.
Because #ToughDecisions contrasted MSF medics' tough choices in the field with the more mundane choices we have in everyday life the idea was to start a conversation with South Africans through Twitter and Facebook about the decision to donate in support of MSF's work.
With #ToughDecisions MSF also introduced the Southern African fieldworkers whose commitment and courage was tested in some of the most volatile and hardest places in the world where they hoped to bring life-saving medical care when it was needed most. #ToughDecisions was about individuals connecting with the people of MSF to make an immediate difference.
See the first TV/Internet ad here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wMSJgN3sCY
With #ToughDecisions MSF wanted to connect with South Africans, show the breadth of their medical humanitarian work, be transparent about the difficulties of their work and put a face to the people who make it all possible: fieldworkers and donors.