The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
MSK's 'Late' turns chronic lateness into a warning about late-stage cancer
Hispanics are more often diagnosed late, so MSK built its screening campaign on a woman who is late to everything — until she is too late.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
What it had to solve
Hispanics are more likely to die of cancer because their cancer tends to be diagnosed at a late stage; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) set out to get Hispanics screened on time.
How it works
The statistic was ugly: Hispanics are more likely to die of cancer because their cancer is more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) set out to change one behaviour — getting screened on time.
Its answer was a short film built on a trait the campaign acknowledges Hispanics too often share: a young woman who is always late. Her tardiness is funny — until the story takes its turn and she is a little too late for her own health.
The film made 'on time' the emotional point rather than the bureaucratic one, and all efforts pointed to getcheckedatiempo.com, a microsite where viewers could find out how to get screened. The work was preserved in D&AD's Health & Wellbeing awards archive.
Why it lands
- The campaign starts from the audience's own joke, so Hispanic viewers see themselves before they hear any warning.
- The 'a little too late' turn converts a cultural trait into the exact consequence the campaign exists to prevent.
- One clear call to action — the getcheckedatiempo.com microsite — turns an emotional film into a practical next step.
- It reframes screening as arriving on time for one thing the audience can control, rather than a medical command from outside.
What it did
The film turned an uncomfortable statistic into a story viewers recognise: the audience laughs at the lateness, then the twist delivers the reason to act, with every effort channelled to one microsite that explains how to get screened. The work entered D&AD's Health & Wellbeing awards archive.
What you can take
Let the audience recognise themselves before you warn them: a shared cultural trait opens the door, and the turn in the story delivers the health message with an emotion no statistic can.
Since then
The short premiered on World Cancer Day in February 2024 and was later honoured with a Jay Chiat Awards silver. The D&AD archive keeps it as an example of a screening campaign built on cultural self-recognition rather than fear-based statistics — the humour does the opening, and the twist does the persuading.
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