• by Aaron Baar , November 6, 2015

The American Cancer Society is not just about finding a cure for cancer. It’s also about celebrating the ways in which people battle the disease every day. 

The organization has recently launched a new public awareness campaign, “Advantage Humans,” that showcases the human qualities — such as “Courage,” “Defiance,” even “Anger” — that people use when facing cancer in themselves or in their loved ones. 

“This is looking at the battle against cancer in a different way,” John Maxham, chief creative officer at DDB Chicago, the agency behind the campaign, tells Marketing Daily. “We’re looking at it as pitting our humanity against cancer and using those traits that make us human [to fight it].”

The new campaign marks a shift in tone for the organization, away from one marking “victory” as finding an absolute cure for cancer to one where even the everyday fight against the disease is a triumph, Maxham says. 

Print, digital and out-of-home elements — shot by photographer and cancer survivor Sandro Miller — depict straightforward images of cancer patients, survivors and loved ones, with a simple word to define their fight. One shows a teenager — having lost her hair to chemotherapy — dressed up for her prom with the headline, “Courage,” and, in smaller text, “Cancer’s worst enemy.” Another shows a man clutching a gym weight with the headline, “If we had a dollar for every moment of DEFIANCE against cancer, think of the lives we’d save.”

“It’s a very empowering campaign [about] putting the control back in the hands of everybody,” Daniela Campari, SVP of marketing at the American Cancer Society, tells Marketing Daily. “It’s a revitalization of our brand.”

Digital elements of the campaign will take a longer, deeper look into the lives of several of these patients, while shorter, more traditional commercials tell the stories of the courage a girl shows to attend her prom and the anger a mother feels about her son battling the disease. 

“There’s not necessarily a silver bullet for a single cure for cancer. But victory can be leading your life in the face of cancer,” Maxham says. “What we’re trying to do is tell some of the stories that haven’t been told.”

The campaign, running through December, will appear on billboards in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. Print ads will appear in publications such as WSJ Magazine, Forbes, Fortune, People and The New York Times.