Make A Child Cry

Each year, nearly four million children die from preventable diseases. Millions more are victims of violence, poverty and lack of access to care. Médecins du Monde wanted to denounce this injustice internationally -but they knew the codes of humanitarian communication had stopped working.

We inverted the entire grammar. In a teasing phase, we ran images of crying children in press and outdoor -with the hashtag #MAKEACHILDCRY. Deliberately provocative. Designed to stop. After attracting attention and provoking debate across social media, Médecins du Monde revealed the true message: a child who is crying is a child being cared for.

And to make a maximum number of children cry – to treat them – the organisation needed donations.

The campaign launched July 6, 2016 in France and was simultaneously activated by Médecins du Monde chapters in Germany, Argentina, Canada, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

It ran in TV, press, outdoor and digital. A universal human fact – that children cry when they see doctors – reframed everything. The fear of the doctor became the proof of care.