ADC Awards
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Category
Posters / Billboards - Series
Annual ID
ADC103_BCD071M
About the Work
This campaign used the visceral power of design to make the world wince in empathy with sufferers of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome by visualising their invisible pain for all to feel.
Whilst flexibility is often considered a gift, for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome sufferers (EDS) it means chronic, even life-limiting pain through regular joint dislocation, skin scarring, organ fragility and debilitating fatigue.
The problem is that the pain and damage hyper flexibility causes is largely invisible. Gas Lighting causes further suffering. “But you look normal”, “You’re a hypochondriac.” Even GPs lack awareness of EDS meaning the average diagnosis takes 10 years!
Our goal was to get EDS on society’s radar, from undiagnosed sufferers to GPs, and the wider public, making people aware that hyper flexibility could be EDS.
Design challenge
We needed to dramatise the painful truth behind hyper flexibility but when visualised it can look like a superpower associated with Olympic gymnasts.
The breakthrough came from the desperation expressed by one sufferer; See me, feel me, hear me, recognise EDS.
Our design needed visceral impact to help people finally ‘see sufferers’ by ‘feeling their otherwise invisible pain’.
Design approach
People’s instinct is to look away from other’s pain because it hurts. Scientists attribute this to mirror neurones which enable us to feel what others feel.
So, we asked sufferers to describe the pain they experienced. Working with photographer Kristina Varaksina we captured the rawness and vulnerability they expressed and used CGI to visualise it.
The hauntingly beautiful campaign ran across the UKs most prominent media sites including Piccadilly Lights and The Axis Tower, grabbing the attention of publications around the world. Sufferers felt ‘seen’ for the first time, GPs wanted to find out more and viewers claimed to ‘almost feel their pain’ finally unlocking the invisible suffering of EDS for all to feel.
Whilst flexibility is often considered a gift, for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome sufferers (EDS) it means chronic, even life-limiting pain through regular joint dislocation, skin scarring, organ fragility and debilitating fatigue.
The problem is that the pain and damage hyper flexibility causes is largely invisible. Gas Lighting causes further suffering. “But you look normal”, “You’re a hypochondriac.” Even GPs lack awareness of EDS meaning the average diagnosis takes 10 years!
Our goal was to get EDS on society’s radar, from undiagnosed sufferers to GPs, and the wider public, making people aware that hyper flexibility could be EDS.
Design challenge
We needed to dramatise the painful truth behind hyper flexibility but when visualised it can look like a superpower associated with Olympic gymnasts.
The breakthrough came from the desperation expressed by one sufferer; See me, feel me, hear me, recognise EDS.
Our design needed visceral impact to help people finally ‘see sufferers’ by ‘feeling their otherwise invisible pain’.
Design approach
People’s instinct is to look away from other’s pain because it hurts. Scientists attribute this to mirror neurones which enable us to feel what others feel.
So, we asked sufferers to describe the pain they experienced. Working with photographer Kristina Varaksina we captured the rawness and vulnerability they expressed and used CGI to visualise it.
The hauntingly beautiful campaign ran across the UKs most prominent media sites including Piccadilly Lights and The Axis Tower, grabbing the attention of publications around the world. Sufferers felt ‘seen’ for the first time, GPs wanted to find out more and viewers claimed to ‘almost feel their pain’ finally unlocking the invisible suffering of EDS for all to feel.
2024 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit Honor
Credits
Agency
WMH&I / London
Type Foundry
Dalton Maag / London
Production Company
Pop Creative / London
Creative Director
Mark Nichols
Design Director
James Flint
Photographer
Kristina Varaksina
Strategist
George Wheeler
Strategy Director
Ben Stewart
Account Director
Rosie Brennan
Creative
Daniel Coleman
Director of Growth
Wybe Magermans
Printers
LNS / London
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