Canadian Cancer Appeal Doesn't Hold Back

CCC urges viewers to 'Face the Unimaginable'

It’s rare that advertising, even in the health and wellness space, drops reality bombs like “Imagine your child needs a second round of treatment … and you need a second mortgage.” But Childhood Cancer Canada does just that in an especially frank campaign developed with The Garden.

In an appeal for donations, the work asks viewed to confront “the unimaginable” and meet the disease’s life-altering challenges head-on.

“Childhood cancer is often seen as a single moment—a diagnosis or a hospital stay—without fully understanding the ripple effects it creates for entire families,” says CCC director of development Kyle Smith. “We face those realities every day alongside families, providing financial, psychosocial and community support.”

“This campaign reflects that childhood cancer is more than a diagnosis. It has many hidden impacts on a family. We believe that only by confronting the full experience can we create better outcomes for families.”

Though hard-hitting and somewhat bleak, the approach feels refreshing and bang on point. There’s no sugar-coating or dancing around tough subjects. Instead, coming to terms with what must be done in the here and now provides the first steps in a long-term trek toward recovery.

The OOH really drives the point:

“The insight crystallized during one of the initial strategy sessions with CCC that included the clients and parents with lived experience. The parents all talked about hearing this same phrase: ‘I can’t imagine,'” agency ECD Lindsay Eady tells Muse. “They appreciated that it was meant kindly, but it felt distancing—as if people were keeping the experience at arm’s length instead of trying to truly understand it.”

“That stuck with us. We realized ‘I can’t imagine’ is often a reflex—a way to protect ourselves from something too overwhelming to sit with,” she says. “The breakthrough was flipping that instinct. Instead of accepting it as the end of the conversation, we asked, ‘What if we actually did imagine it?'”

“That question led to ‘Let’s Face the Unimaginable’—an invitation to move beyond polite sympathy and confront the everyday reality these families live with.”