Advertising & Marketing Communications – Not for Profit
Client Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC)
Brand Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC)
Entrant Medulla Communications
Brief IAPC has helped establish an infrastructure to provide palliative care but only 1% of eligible Indians avail it and <2% of doctors offer it spontaneously to the terminally ill. The client brief was simply to develop “a public awareness film on palliative care” but we re-crafted as: 1. Build awareness and need among the terminally ill, their families and friends. 2. Build doctor consideration.
Cultural Context In India, talking about death is taboo. So starting conversations on death and palliative care is challenging. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked India’s end-of-life care last among 40 countries, giving a score of 2/5 in public awareness, attributing it partly to reluctance to openly discuss death.Moreover, doctors focus on prolonging life, sending even terminally ill patients to the ICU.
Solution The insight:
Most last words are heard by nurses, not families.

The creative idea:
Could these dying last words–unheard by families so far–bring alive the need for palliative care? We interviewed >200 nurses across India and the most heart-rending last words they heard became the heart of our campaign – the film. We used these real last words to start conversations on palliative care.