Responses by Lindsay Eady, executive creative director; Nuala Murray, senior copywriter; and Mriga Suchdeva, senior art director, The Garden.
Background: “The purpose of the project was to raise awareness of the often unseen, long-term impact childhood cancer has on children and their families and to challenge the reflexive response of ‘I can’t imagine’ that can unintentionally distance people from what families actually live through,” says Lindsay Eady. “While public attention often focuses on diagnosis and treatment, the campaign reframes childhood cancer as a lifelong, family-wide experience, highlighting the emotional, financial and practical challenges that continue well beyond the hospital.
“The primary audience is the general public, with the goal of deepening understanding, increasing empathy, and motivating support for families affected by childhood cancer,” Eady continues. “It also aims to strengthen awareness of Childhood Cancer Canada and the role it plays in funding research and providing long-term emotional and financial support to families across the country.”
Design thinking: “The solution was built around a simple but powerful insight,” Eady explains. “When people hear that a child has cancer, they often respond with ‘I can’t imagine.’ While well-intentioned, the phrase can create distance from the lived reality families face. By flipping that reflex into an invitation—Let’s Face the Unimaginable—the campaign asks audiences to pause and consider the full, long-term impact of childhood cancer on entire families. The creative approach focuses on honest, human moments and stark messaging that bring those realities into view without softening or sensationalizing them.”
Challenges: “There were definitely some new challenges that came along with creating work in this space,” says Nuala Murray. “In advertising, we’re always trying to push the creative and make an impact, even if that means provoking a little. But when you’re featuring real subjects and stories, you have to be mindful of how far you can go. We needed to make people feel something real while remaining sensitive and not playing into shock value. These were real survivors and their families, and it was important we told these stories in a way that felt true to their experiences.
“That thinking also shaped how we approached production. We chose to work with a small, intimate team to create an environment that felt comfortable and supportive for the families involved,” Murray continues. “It was a challenge in its own right—pulling off ambitious production goals with a lean crew—but it let us prioritize the wellbeing of the children and their parents at every step. In a project like this, that had to come first.”
Favorite details: “What I’m most proud of is how the campaign makes people personally confront something most would rather look away from,” says Mriga Suchdeva. “Childhood cancer is often spoken about through stats or hopeful messaging, but we chose to focus on the reality families face without sugarcoating it. The campaign gets viewers inside the unimaginable scenarios parents sometimes have to face, encouraging them to imagine themselves in those moments rather than simply observe them from a distance.
“I’m also proud of the restraint behind the work,” Suchdeva continues. “Instead of relying on emotional imagery or overly dramatic storytelling, we trusted simple, powerful ideas to carry the message. This helped the campaign feel more honest, real and respectful to families living through these experiences.”
New lessons: “We learned an incredible amount about childhood cancer during this project,” says Murray. “Our task was to create a brand platform that addressed the lack of awareness around the subject, and in many ways, that proved true for us as well. There was so much we didn’t know. Of course, this learning started in the research and creative development phases, but what was really surprising was how much we gained on set just simply spending time with children and their families. Parents were really trusting and forthcoming about their experiences. As they shared their day-to-day realities and anecdotes, we gained a much deeper, personal understanding of what this journey looks like. These experiences grounded the work in a way that no amount of research alone could and reinforced the responsibility we felt to represent this subject honestly.”
Visual influences: “A big part of this campaign was rejecting the usual visual language in this space,” Suchdeva explains. “So much of the work leans toward clinical settings or inspirational framing, and that never felt right for this campaign. For the static pieces—on OOH, digital and social—we made a pretty bold move by deciding to remove imagery entirely. Without photography to look at, the viewer has no choice but to picture the moment themselves. The scenes unfold in their imagination, making the experience far more personal than any visual could.
“To introduce a quiet visual layer without disrupting that mental picture, we drew from the visual language of cancer scans,” continues Suchdeva. “The backgrounds take cues from CT and MRI scans, subtly echoing the clinical reality behind the words and reinforcing the presence of the disease behind every message.”
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