What do you say to parents who just had a child with Down syndrome? You can say almost anything, but the only bad word you can say is the one that begins with the letter “S.”
Titled “The ‘S’ Word,” this video is at the center of the Canadian Down Syndrome Society’s “Anything But Sorry” campaign created and produced by FCB Canada. The video features people with Down syndrome sharing alternate things to say to these new parents–using every inappropriate phrase they know except “sorry.” The point is that the most inappropriate thing to say to parents of a child born with Down syndrome is “sorry” and that the birth of every child should be celebrated.
The current campaign is the follow-up to last year’s “Down Syndrome Answers” which was Canada’s most-awarded campaign in Cannes (2017) with 10 Lions and made FCB Canada the most-awarded Canadian agency in Cannes (2017).
Credits
Client Canadian Down Syndrome Society Agency FCB Canada Nanci Crimi-Lamanna, Jeff Hilts, chief creative officers; Marty Hoefkes, sr. copywriter; Michael Morelli, sr. art director; Cody Sabatine, Gira Moin, art directors; Joseph Vernuccio, copywriter. Production FCB Canada Elias Campbell, director; Stephen Mcloughlin, DP. Editorial Rooster Post Production Chris Parkins, editor; Joey Whitelaw, assistant editor; Melissa Kahn, exec producer. Casting Jigsaw Casting Shasta Lutz Telecine The Vanity Andrew Exworth, colorist. Online Fort York Ernie Mordak, Flame artist; Melissa Vasiliev, assistant Flame artist; Armen Bunag, producer. Music Grayson Matthews Mark Domitric, music producer; Igor Correia, music supervisor; Brian Bernard, sound engineer; Ben Swarbrick, Laura Titchner, sound designers; Sharon Yokoyama, producer; Nicholas Shaw, project coordinator.
Continuing their partnership to combat the mental health crisis among America’s youth, the Ad Council and McCann New York have released the latest installment of the “Sound It Out” campaign which focuses on helping parents and caregivers have meaningful conversations with their kids about emotional wellbeing.
The new work, “Listening is a Form of Love,” focuses on the important role parents and caregivers play in supporting young people’s emotional wellbeing and is supported by new data from Surgo Health’s Youth Mental Health Tracker. The survey highlights that: 55% of youth (ages 10-24) report mental health struggles; and one in five youth report symptoms of depression, and one in four report symptoms of anxiety.
The film includes an interactive digital experience that invites parents to practice “holding space” by pressing the space bar to listen to kids sharing what they wish their parents could hear, in their own words. Along with this literal interpretation of the active listening the campaign encourages, the website also gives valuable tools to help parents and caregivers be better listeners, and in turn, better support their kids.
There is also this 60-second PSA--directed by Alex Fischman Cardenas via Greenpoint Pictures--which underscores the power and importance of listening to your loved ones.
