Raising Organ Donation Awareness With A Public Display Of Dialysis
By: KC Ifeanyi
"The Waiting Time Experiment," created by agency Ogilvy & Mather Berlin, brings to life the shocking truth of how long it takes for organ donations to become available, with the help of a patient in need.
At Frankfurt’s airport, Michael Stapf waits. Not for a flight or shuttle service, mind you, but for a kidney--and he’s been waiting for seven years. To raise awareness about the shocking disparity between those who need organs and how many are actually donated, agency Ogilvy & Mather Berlin created "The Waiting Time Experiment," an in-your-face stunt for foundation Fürs Leben that had Stapf receiving dialysis on a bustling platform at the airport.
By opting to spread their message in a physical demonstration, Fürs Leben’s campaign puts an everyday face to such a serious issue to underscore the bleak math of facts: 12,000 patients in Germany are waiting for an organ donation with only about 1,200 organs donated a year, leaving the dismal reality of three people dying each day.
But from the visible reactions "The Waiting Time Experiment" has elicited, those numbers just might improve.
