SickKids dramatised a diagnosis as a dark cloud, asking Ontarians to be the light

SickKids Foundation was raising funds for a new hospital and had never illustrated what childhood illness looks like. Patient families kept describing diagnosis the same way: a dark cloud descending on your whole world, with the hospital and community as the ray of light.

Created with Cossette as the next chapter of the SickKids VS platform: a film juxtaposing darkness with light, plus social and digital executions using patients' real stories to drive a donor-acquisition funnel toward 10,000 new monthly donors by December. Citizen Relations led PR, OMD led media; OOH, OLV, digital and paid and organic social ran until December.

The source records no donor totals; the campaign's stated target was 10,000 new monthly donors by December, pursued through a fully integrated acquisition funnel with a specific job for every channel.

In October 2021, SickKids Foundation launched 'Be a Light', the next chapter of its long-running SickKids VS brand platform, created with Cossette to bring the community closer to patients and staff and highlight the need to build a new hospital.

The concept came from a recurring metaphor in patient families' own words: receiving a diagnosis feels like a dark cloud descending on your whole world — and, as VP of brand strategy Kate Torrance noted, the pandemic had just made that feeling universal. The film dramatises the metaphor, showing the SickKids community of staff, researchers, patients and donors as the ray of light that beats the cloud back.

Executive creative director Craig McIntosh said the platform isn't only about kids' strength and resilience but about understanding the deep impact of childhood illness: 'all of us need to show up to fight for these kids.' The campaign ran until December across OOH, OLV, digital and social, with social executions leveraging patients' real stories to push prospects toward becoming recurring monthly donors.

It visualises the illness for the first time — drawn from what patient families themselves say, not an agency invention.

The pandemic made the metaphor universal: everyone knew what a dark cloud descending felt like.

The creative plugs straight into a measurable goal: 10,000 new monthly donors via a channel-specific acquisition funnel.

Use your community's own metaphor: when families repeatedly describe diagnosis as a dark cloud, dramatising that image makes the ask — be the light — feel like the natural response.

The campaign ran until December 2021 across OOH, OLV, digital and social; the source does not record whether the 10,000-donor goal was met.