The Campaign

Mercedes-benz Sprinter is the world’s leading medical vehicle, providing medical access to the most remote locations due to its durability and functionalities. With that, the brand discovered miscommunication is one of the major causes of medical errors everywhere, especially in Thailand, where patients in rural areas are speaking different languages, including tribal languages. (The latest data has shown in Thailand alone there are 73 languages used, and 7,000 languages worldwide). So the brand and Thai Health Foundation partnered to create a universal language that overcomes language barriers between doctors and patients, the symbol system that can help doctors diagnose every known illness, without using verbal language. This will help reduce miscommunication between health professionals who work in rural areas, both volunteers and those work in public health centers, and their patients, who speak different languages.

Execution

We designed a symbol language,using instinctive design,which is the design from fundamental objects,shapes, and forms;The symbols are based on experience that can be perceived and give the same understanding for all. For example,the shape of a thorn,no matter what this pointy shape is called in any languages,everyone have the same understanding that this shape is sharp and know the feeling of pain it causes.Or the shape of fire,everyone automatically understands the feeling fire gives--the burning sensation. We develop each symbol with pain specialists from Thai Health Foundation and Siriraj Hospital,as well as medical volunteers to understand more on rural patients. Patients simply point the location on their body where the pain occurs,and point at the type of pain they are experiencing. This symbol set is printed in a form of pamphlet,this is cost-effective,light,and easy to carry around. However,the idea is a universal symbol language,that can be implemented in various formats.

This set of symbols overcomes language barriers that used to be a long-standing problem in medical care, it can be implemented in various ways in other locations, because miscommunications and inability to describe pain characteristics happen everywhere where doctors and patients do not share the same language. it has an impact on people’s lives, those whose language is the minority in the country now gets the same standard of healthcare as others. The universal language of pain help reduce miscommunications that could cause medical errors and waste medical resources, as well as strengthen the brand’s proposition as the world’s leading medical vehicle.

The Situation

This work is a result of partnership between Mercedes-Benz and ThaiHealth to help the public; to help the doctors and medical professionals to communicate with their patients better and leads to better diagnosis. PR isn’t just about telling a brand message to the public, we don’t just do the talking but we create the work that helps solve existing human problems, truly communicating to the public best by helping them.

The Strategy

The target audience are patients in rural areas, who speak different languages, and doctors in public health centers or medical volunteers,who have difficulties understanding them. So our strategy is to approach Thai Health Foundation to learn more on the target and see what is the key element in making doctors and patients understand each other, and also the knowledge about pain and diagnosis.