Teva has a message for caregivers: Love doesn't take a break. Continuing its caring for the caregiver push, the Israeli drugmaker has teamed up with VCCP Health to create a video designed to capture the strains and joys of looking after loved ones.
Unpaid carers are the hidden engine of healthcare. In the U.K., 4.3 million people start providing unpaid care each year, saving the state an estimated 132 billion pounds sterling ($159 billion), and, in the U.S., 56% of employed caregivers work full time. Teva has run campaigns aimed at caregivers in the past and has shared their stories on its Life Effects website.
For the latest campaign, Teva has teamed up with VCCP to create a “raw and relatable” video. Galit Sasson, director, global corporate brand at Teva and a caregiver, explained the thinking behind the latest campaign.
“There is no real graduation process into the role, and many people don't self-identify themselves as caregivers. Their needs are not recognized sometimes,” Sasson said in an interview with Fierce Pharma Marketing.
“We've been supporting caregivers across the globe in different activities. Based on that, we thought of creating a film to raise awareness of the caregiver role, show support and highlight the tools, initiatives and information we have available.”
Teva worked with Brett O'Connor, executive creative director at VCCP, on the ad. The brief presented VCCP with a challenge. The video needed to “stay very true to the nature of what a carer actually does,” O'Connor said, but, when that is visualized, “it can almost make it look as though the caregiver has a burden.”
“We really didn't want that to come across,” O'Connor said. Treading a fine line, the team aimed to create an ad that doesn’t shy away from the fact that “there's going to be tough times,” O'Connor said, but still features a sprinkling of “real moments of joy” and “tender moments that make it worthwhile.”
That thinking has manifested in a one-minute ad that shows a series of scenes in the life of a caregiver, who we first see fixing a problem that is triggering an alarm on a medical device used by her father. In the following scenes, the caregiver sorts tablets while keeping an eye on children, helps her father take a drink and prepares food while kids run around and knock a jar on the floor.
Reflecting O'Connor’s desire to balance the light and the dark, a joyous scene of three generations of the family laughing and embracing while flicking through old photos is followed by a shot of the caregiver crying alone on the kitchen floor.
Throughout the advert, a poetic voice-over, delivered by John Rhys-Davies of "Indiana Jones" and "Lord of the Rings" fame, expresses gratitude to the caregiver. Addressing the caregiver, the speaker explains that, while “this doesn't always come easy, and I'm not sure where to start,” they “know how much you do every single day, and it means the world to me.”
The ad ends with a shot of the father and daughter dancing as the strings swell and the message “love doesn’t take a break. That’s why we support caregivers” flash up on the screen. The final few seconds of the video direct viewers to a Teva patient and caregiver website for support and advice.
Originally, the ad lacked the voice-over, but the team identified a need for something else during the edit to give it a “very emotional and hopefully fair balance,” O'Connor said. Rhys-Davies, having cared for his wife before her death from Alzheimer’s disease, brought his own experience to the role.
“He has that emotional tie to being a caregiver; he truly understands what it takes,” O'Connor said. “I think that's a very critical part of the film, that it wasn't just a voiceover or using a famous voiceover. It's the fact that he's experienced it. I think it really came through and that for me was key.”