Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital has announced the launch of a campaign to raise $1 billion for cancer research in the next five years, as well as a large multimedia advertising initiative to support the donation drive.
The hospital’s “Billion Dollar Challenge” was announced publicly Wednesday morning, although Paul Alofs, president and CEO of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, had previously mentioned the campaign on the foundation’s website, and the news was reported yesterday on the Toronto Star website.
The organization is seeking to raise funds to research and implement what it dubs “personalized cancer medicine” that utilizes the genetic profiles of individual patients to guide their treatment.
“It’s the largest fundraising campaign from a Canadian hospital in Canadian history,” said Alofs. “We’re hoping to pioneer the launch of personalized cancer medicine.”
The advertising campaign includes television spots, newspaper and transit creative and online videos. A campaign website went live Wednesday, while the rest of the advertising hits the market next week.
Young & Rubicam Toronto – whose president and CEO Chris Jordan sits on the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation’s board of directors – developed the creative pro bono.
Alofs said the creative underscores the four pillars upon which Princess Margaret Hospital has based its definition of personalized cancer medicine – detection, diagnosis, targeting and patient support. The work also employs the hospital’s cancer research tagline, “We will conquer cancer in our lifetime.”
Alofs credited Y&R for its strong work in a pro bono capacity.
“To have a brand shop as strong as Y&R focus their creative resources on something like this has just been unbelievably important to us,” he said. “Hopefully when people see the creative they’ll really be inspired by it and we’ll see this thing really get turbo-charged.”
