The Campaign

We met the terminally ill and their families through the IAPC network and unearthed the insight: Palliative care helps people accept death, even laugh about it. This led to the idea of the Last Laugh – A stand-up comedy show performed by the terminally ill for doctors, to break the taboo. Palliative care counselors and India’s best comedians performed by the terminally ill for doctors, to break the taboo. Palliative care counselors and India’s best comedians joined hands to screen, train and support these patients. The shows with their recordings and coverage became our campaign. Using comedy to discuss death resolved several challenges: Comedy, coming from these patients, could demonstrate that palliative care helps the terminally ill get comfortable with death, even joke about it, then why can’t it be discussed. And importantly, comedy is currently trending in making comedians the strongest digital influencers, and ensuring virality.

Creative Execution

The biggest execution challenge was working with terminally ill patients. So, palliative care counselors and India’s best comedians screened them and spent weeks with them, converting experiences with death/dying into stand-up comedy. The campaign launched at medical conferences and on social media with an opinion poll establishing the taboo. The video was shared with doctors through micro-targeted Facebook promotion, IAPC’s network of doctor associations, and doctor groups on Facebook/ WhatsApp (India’s #1 messaging app), reaching over 80% Indian doctors. Medical opinion leaders supported the campaign. A UGC campaign ensured doctors shared stories of their terminally ill patients. Followed by India’s first Facebook 360 Live show for doctors, with the terminally ill comics inspiring doctors and palliative care counselors training doctors to discuss death with patients. The website provided more detailed training. Amplification through mass media partnerships and PR ensured the campaign reached consumers and generated buzz with doctors too.

Seeing the terminally ill laugh at death, not just doctors but all Indians questioned the ingrained fear of discussing death, and palliative care truly entered the Indian lexicon. The campaign trended #1 all-India on Twitter, #3 on YouTube, went viral on Facebook with 36,000 shares, became a viral sensation on WhatsApp (India’s #1 mobile-messaging platform), inspired India’s largest zero-cost media partnerships (other than entertainment), made it to the front pages of India’s leading newspapers, aired as a 30-minute show on India’s leading TV news network, aired as a week-long special on India’s leading radio network, and even spread globally through coverage on BBC World News. Together, reaching over 80% Indian doctors and garnering over 3 million dollars of earned media, 300 million impressions, and 3 million video views. All with <$10,000 of total spends. Importantly, a country that was scared to even talk about death is now laughing at it.

In India, talking about death is taboo. So, doctors do not discuss even death with the terminally ill, let alone palliative care. To break the taboo and inspire a cultural change, the campaign had to: 1. Reach both healthcare professionals (HCPs) and consumers 2. Use multiple peer-to-peer platforms for HCPs like medical conferences, social media, doctor associations, etc. 3. Create content platforms that didn’t just break the taboo but also trained doctors to discuss death with patients 4. Use HCPs to reach consumers 5. Amplify consumer reach and create a buzz among HCPs through social media, media partnerships and PR.

After IAPC’s ‘Last Words’ campaign in 2016, consumer awareness of palliative care in urban India is >15%, doctor awareness is 100%, doctor conviction is >80%, still access to palliative care is 1%. Increasing access necessitated breaking the taboo and ensuring that doctors, terminally ill patients and their families were all willing to discuss death and palliative care. Medical representatives can’t influence doctors to break the taboo but peer-to-peer conversations could. So medical conferences, IAPC’s network of medical associations and social media became core platforms. Stand-up comics and medical opinion leaders, together, became influencers and amplified the reach. The terminally ill and their families had to be comfortable discussing death too. So conversations needed to be amplified through mass media. And doctors played a dual role – as audience and as influencers for consumer communication. Finally, breaking the taboo with doctors was insufficient–they also needed training to discuss death with patients.