The Waiting Time Experiment
In Germany, but also everywhere in the world, a lot of patients have to face a very long waiting time before receiving the organ donation that will save their life. In order to catch public opinion attention around the lack of organ donors, the association Fürs Leben (For Life) has created a strong, impactful and I would say controversial ambient marketing action. They have put Michael Stapf, a young man in dialysis who has been waiting for seven years to receive a kidney, on a platform in Frankfurt’s train station, with all the medical equipment that is unfortunately part of his life.
The initiative got a lot of media attention and several people stopped by to talk to Michael while on the screens around the station the campaign messages encouraged people to sign-up and become potential organ donors, to help Michael’s and other patients waiting time becoming shorter and less hopeless.
I find it hard to comment on this initiative. It’s like a punch in the stomach. Probably the only thing I can say is that we should admire Michael for having the guts to show his conditions to the public, to stand there in the middle of the crowd, to expose himself in first person fighting a battle for himself and for all the 12000 German patients who are waiting for a transplant.
The agency is Ogilvy & Mather Berlin.
