Overdose Lifeline #ChooseEmpathy Campaign | Clapboard Ad Archive

#ChooseEmpathy - The Experiment

Description

#ChooseEmpathy - The Experiment, launched in 2019 by Overdose Lifeline in the United States, is a compelling direct marketing initiative within the Public Interest sector designed to reshape societal perceptions of substance use disorder. This campaign confronts the deeply ingrained stigma that frames addiction as a moral failing rather than a medical condition comparable to heart arrhythmia or hypertension. By inviting the average American to engage with the realities of attempting to overcome addiction, the campaign humanizes the struggle inherent in recovery and fosters a greater sense of understanding and compassion. Utilizing a single potent media asset, #ChooseEmpathy - The Experiment seeks to dismantle judgment and encourage empathy towards individuals battling substance use disorder. Through its innovative approach, the campaign amplifies Overdose Lifeline’s mission to elevate public awareness and transform conversations around addiction, ultimately advocating for more supportive attitudes and policies. This focused communication effort underscores the critical need to recognize addiction as a disease, promoting a shift in public discourse from blame to empathy, paving the way for community support and improved health outcomes.

Credits

Client

Overdose Lifeline

Creative Director

Jake Parker Reilly

More like this

The stitched shirt - Susan G. Komen | Clapboard Ad Archive

Susan G. Komen’s The Stitched Shirt campaign, devised by Conill for the 2014 Race for the Cure event in Austin, reimagined cause marketing within the public interest sector by turning apparel into an emotionally charged call to action. At its core, the idea was direct yet powerfully symbolic: a custom t-shirt physically designed with prominent stitched patterns evoked the scars left by breast cancer, transforming a familiar ritual—the donning of a charity tee—into a tangible reminder of what survivorship and prevention mean. Rather than relying on shocking visuals or testimonial storytelling, the campaign took what Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, enlisting symbolism to speak for the realities of breast cancer’s impact without explicit depiction. The centerpiece shirt became not only a conversation starter at the event but also a digital trigger; participants were urged to share their own stories and photos using the #StitchedShirt hashtag across social platforms, effectively personalizing and amplifying the message beyond the physical race itself. This participatory design extended to campaign-specific domains such as TheStitchedShirt.com and KomenAustin.org, reinforcing Komen’s longstanding commitment to education, prevention, and empowerment by providing practical resources for early detection and health advocacy. Conill’s creative solution side-stepped conventional awareness tropes, instead embedding the risk and psychological scars of breast cancer prevention into everyday wear, making the invisible visible in a manner that felt intimate and immediate. With a single, resonant media asset at its center, the campaign concentrated its impact through a mix of tactile engagement and digital mobilization, prioritizing prevention in both message and execution. By leveraging social sharing and simple but potent symbolism, The Stitched Shirt offered audiences both an invitation and a responsibility to take part in the dialogue around early detection—effectively rendering the participant a communicator, not just a spectator. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. The Stitched Shirt matters because it demonstrates the enduring power of symbol-driven communication to deepen empathy and precipitate collective action within the public interest category.

Campaign Proposition

The campaign "#ChooseEmpathy - The Experiment" by Overdose Lifeline seeks to shift public perception of substance use disorder by reframing it as a medical condition rather than a moral failing. The brand proposition centers on fostering empathy and understanding by illustrating the challenges faced by individuals attempting to overcome addiction, thereby promoting the notion that addiction is a disease similar to other chronic health issues like heart arrhythmia or hypertension. This positions Overdose Lifeline as a catalyst for changing societal attitudes and reducing stigma. Strategically, the campaign uses a social experiment format within the public service domain to engage the general American population, leveraging the insight that addiction is often misunderstood and stigmatized. By inviting viewers to witness the complexities and struggles inherent in "kicking the habit," the campaign aims to create an emotional connection that transcends judgment and encourages compassion. The choice of a documentary-style approach adds authenticity and credibility, making the experience relatable and impactful. This creative angle seeks to educate and influence public discourse, ultimately supporting broader efforts to improve support systems and public health policies around addiction.

Creative Device

FORMAT#1 DEMONSTRATION — Directly shows how a product works and highlights its benefits. This campaign, "#ChooseEmpathy - The Experiment," most clearly fits the DEMONSTRATION format because it is structured as a documentary/social experiment aiming to make the viewer "understand what it was really like to try and just ‘kick the habit’.” Instead of leaning on narrative or symbolic elements, the campaign sets up a simulated situation or experiment that lets people experience first-hand the challenges faced by those with substance use disorder. The focus is on directly showing the experience (or "product" here being empathy and understanding) rather than constructing a story arc, problem-solution metaphor, or symbolic analogy. Unlike testimonial or benefit-driven stories, the campaign’s social experiment approach lets its audience witness, transparently, how real people fare when asked to do what those with addictions face—thus, it is a classic demonstration format. ADVERTISING FORMATS EXPLAINED: https://www.clapboard.com/blog/branding-and-advertising/brand-strategy/12-advertising-creative-formats

Reverse - Merck for Mothers | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Reverse - Merck for Mothers | Clapboard Ad Archive

Merck for Mothers’ 2018 campaign Reverse, created by Matter Unlimited, confronts the urgent public health crisis of maternal mortality in the United States through a deeply personal narrative that eschews traditional advocacy tactics in favor of intimate storytelling. The film follows a young, educated daughter who, despite the societal privileges of good parenting, education, and stable employment, confronts the harsh and often invisible reality that childbirth carries a significant risk of death, a reality underscored by the statistic that 60% of maternal deaths in the U.S. are preventable. This approach, which aligns with what Clapboard classifies as FORMAT#10 ASSOCIATED USER IMAGERY, leverages the protagonist’s relatable profile to dismantle assumptions about who is vulnerable to maternal health complications, making the crisis feel immediate and universal. The campaign’s single film asset operates as both an emotional journey and a call to action, inviting audiences to empathize with a story that could reflect their own or that of someone they know, thereby translating data into human experience without resorting to didactic messaging or product-centric demonstrations. Matter Unlimited’s execution skillfully balances the narrative’s documentary-style realism with a clear public interest imperative, emphasizing Merck for Mothers’ commitment to transforming outrage and awareness into tangible policy changes and health interventions. By focusing on the lived experience of a woman from a seemingly secure socioeconomic background, Reverse challenges the complacency that can surround maternal health statistics and galvanizes viewers to recognize the systemic failures that persist even in developed healthcare systems. The campaign earns 71/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. Reverse matters to the industry because it demonstrates how public service advertising can harness personal storytelling to expose structural inequities, ensuring that critical health issues resonate beyond statistics and become catalysts for social change.

Take the Coke Challenge! - DanceSafe | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Take the Coke Challenge! - DanceSafe | Clapboard Ad Archive

Take the Coke Challenge! signals a progressive turn in public interest communications from DanceSafe and The Garden, challenging perceptions and driving real-world behavior change around recreational drug safety with a direct and demonstrative approach. Launched in Canada in 2019 for International Overdose Awareness Day, the campaign addresses the escalating opioid crisis through a format that sits squarely within Clapboard’s FORMAT#1—Demonstration, foregrounding practical engagement over abstraction by openly showing the vital act of testing substances for fentanyl contamination. Rejecting moralizing narratives or shock tactics, DanceSafe and The Garden anchor the message in procedural clarity: if you choose to use drugs, test first—here is how. The campaign unfolds as an experiential activation, with its central video asset capturing the hard reality that what is unseen in recreational drugs can be deadly, and then modeling a straightforward harm reduction step available to anyone. By using lived demonstration rather than metaphor or fear, the campaign reframes public service advertising for a new era, meeting audiences where they are with respect, candor, and actionable information. A finalist in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, Take the Coke Challenge! garnered critical recognition for social impact and creativity, leveraging its digital presence and engaging community to extend the message well beyond the event. The campaign’s dedicated webpage serves as an accessible, ongoing resource, inviting continued interaction and delivering clear, judgment-free advice to those most at risk. DanceSafe’s mission to empower rather than alienate its audience is evident in the campaign’s careful balance of urgency and practicality, positioning harm reduction as a community norm rather than a fringe intervention. In a market category crowded with fear-driven or stigmatizing approaches, The Garden’s work pushes the boundaries of what public health creative can achieve by foregrounding empathy and user agency. Clapboard rates this 72/100. As the opioid crisis persists and evolves, Take the Coke Challenge! demonstrates how clear-sighted demonstration and experiential storytelling can reshape the language of health intervention while meaningfully reducing barriers to life-saving action.

Gift of Opportunity - Opportunity Village | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Gift of Opportunity - Opportunity Village | Clapboard Ad Archive

Gift of Opportunity is a 2019 public interest campaign from Opportunity Village, crafted by R&R Partners, that confronts the persistent challenge of visibility and support for adults with disabilities by presenting authentic, humanized profiles of its community members rather than conventional dramatized narratives. This film-based initiative, spanning television, radio, print, billboards, and social media, launched a targeted three-month fundraising drive in Nevada designed to sustain and expand vital programs serving nearly 2,000 adults with disabilities annually. By foregrounding real clients such as Carlos H. from the PRIDE program, artists Dana W. and Sean M., and Employment Resource Center participants Johnny and Lia B., alongside their families and caregivers, the campaign leverages what Clapboard’s taxonomy classifies as FORMAT#10—Associated User Imagery—an approach that invites empathy and identification through candid, aspirational storytelling that portrays dignity and empowerment rather than deficit. This deliberate creative choice shifts the focus away from problem-solution tropes, instead fostering a connection rooted in shared humanity and community, which is critical in public service communication. Opportunity Village’s President and CEO emphasizes the strategic partnership with R&R Partners in amplifying these voices across Nevada’s media landscape, ensuring a broad and inclusive reach that encourages viewers to contribute via the campaign’s dedicated digital and phone channels. The campaign’s multi-channel execution maximizes engagement by meeting audiences where they are, and its narrative honesty aligns with contemporary expectations for authentic representation in advocacy advertising. Clapboard rates this campaign 60/100 in its global creative archive. Gift of Opportunity matters to the industry because it demonstrates how public interest campaigns can harness user-centered storytelling to build genuine emotional connections that motivate action without resorting to sentimentalism or stereotypical portrayals.

Call in sick for earth day - Earth Day | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Call in sick for earth day - Earth Day | Clapboard Ad Archive

Earth Day’s 2022 campaign Call in Sick for Earth Day, created by Sid Lee in Canada, confronts the rising mental health challenge of eco-anxiety by transforming it into a collective call to action that reframes environmental distress as a shared illness requiring care and community engagement. Rooted in the public service market category, this campaign leverages the familiar workplace ritual of calling in sick as a metaphor for acknowledging the planet’s deteriorating condition and the emotional toll it exacts on individuals worldwide. By inviting people to symbolically excuse themselves from their usual routines on April 22, the initiative encourages participants to join local events and activities designed to alleviate both personal eco-anxiety and the broader environmental crisis, thus linking emotional well-being with environmental stewardship. Sid Lee’s strategic insight taps into a growing demographic that feels overwhelmed by climate change news, offering a compassionate and inclusive approach that validates feelings of helplessness while empowering action. The campaign’s film medium distills this concept into a potent narrative device, using Clapboard’s FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem—to recast abstract psychological distress as a tangible, relatable condition without resorting to literal depictions of environmental damage or testimonial storytelling. This symbolic framing lowers barriers to engagement by making the issue immediately accessible and emotionally resonant, encouraging social sharing through hashtags like #CallinSickforEarthDay and directing audiences to remedytogether.org and earthday.ca for resources and event participation. The campaign’s integration of digital and experiential touchpoints amplifies its reach within Canada, positioning Earth Day as a platform for both personal healing and collective environmental responsibility. Clapboard rates this campaign 71/100. This campaign matters to the industry because it demonstrates how public interest work can harness psychological insights and cultural rituals to convert widespread anxiety into meaningful communal action that advances both mental health and environmental advocacy.