LÖSEV My Dear Brother Rewrites a Turkish Classic for Children

The Strategic Logic Behind Rafineri's Cultural Intervention for LÖSEV

LÖSEV competes for public attention, donations, and earned media within a crowded field of Turkish health, humanitarian, cancer, and child-welfare NGOs. No single standardised market-size estimate exists for healthcare nonprofit advertising in Turkey, as noted in research compiled for this case study, but the competitive pressure facing foundations operating in this space is well established. In Turkey, public trust and cultural resonance function as primary differentiators for nonprofits, making creative strategy inseparable from fundraising and awareness objectives.

Rafineri's insight was that direct emotional appeals to leukemia statistics risk compassion fatigue, a documented challenge for health and public interest organisations globally. The agency instead identified the 1973 film Canım Kardeşim as a shared cultural touchstone for Turkish audiences and positioned the campaign around rewriting its tragic conclusion. This approach mirrors a broader shift in health communication toward narrative genre storytelling, where emotional logic carries the message further than data alone. The strategy also reflects Rafineri's established working relationship with LÖSEV, which according to Marketingturkiye Com Tr and Ared Org Tr, extends at least as far back as April 2017, when the pair produced the Laughing Switch campaign. That earlier campaign used radio as an intervention medium, replacing familiar laughter sound effects in popular broadcasts with recordings associated with children diagnosed with leukemia, and featured influencers and celebrities discussing leukemia to amplify reach, as reported by ared.org.tr. My Dear Brother represents a creative escalation of the same strategic logic: meet audiences inside a cultural experience they already trust, then redirect its emotional outcome toward a public health message. In the Turkish health and public interest landscape, where peer organisations rely primarily on conventional donation appeals, this narrative-first model constitutes a meaningful strategic differentiation.

Emre Kaplan and Rafineri Craft a New Ending for a Beloved Turkish Film

Director Bahadır Karataş helmed the film production for My Dear Brother, with production company FilmPark executing the shoot and 1000 Volt handling post-production, according to adsoftheworld.com and lbbonline.com. The creative direction was led by executive creative director and executive chief officer Emre Kaplan at Rafineri, working alongside creative directors Ali Şener, Kerim Gürsel, and Doğu Göcük. Copywriting was handled by Anıl Tiryaki, with illustration by Faruk Terzi, who also served as an art director alongside Burçak Beşlioğlu, Özge Ateş, and Asya Aydın, as credited by adsoftheworld.com and The One Club.

The craft challenge at the centre of My Dear Brother was period authenticity. To make the new ending feel continuous with the 1973 original, the production team needed to match the visual grammar, colour grading, and emotional register of a film made nearly five decades earlier. The result, as documented by lbbonline.com, was a seamlessly integrated sequence that audiences could experience as part of the original work before the campaign's intent became clear. This deliberate ambiguity is central to the creative execution: the emotional investment the audience has already made in the original film is transferred intact to the new ending, making the survival of the child protagonist feel both earned and possible.

Producer Şafak Serter is credited by adsoftheworld.com, though oneclub.org lists the name as Şafak Sezer, a discrepancy noted in the available production records. Account responsibilities were held by Erbek Onur and Nazlı Elibol, with strategy led by Mert Tuncer, as reported by oneclub.org. The integrated campaign format meant the film asset anchored a broader media effort, with the single core film functioning as the primary vehicle for the campaign's public health message across Turkey.