Adam's gift of life

This new campaign for the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research is a touching, heartfelt story about disparate people who each have at least one thing in common.

Recognised throughout Saudi Arabia and the Middle East as a leading healthcare, research and educational institution, the hospital wanted to focus on one key topic, organ transplantation, while also having an impact on the misconception around organ donation and its relationship with the faith that’s predominant in the region.

Those involved in the campaign say that while organ donation is perceived to be prohibited in the Islamic faith, that is not true, and that the religion itself – and most Islamic religious leaders – encourage saving lives, and organ donation is deemed to be one way to do so, provided it does not harm the donor, and is done after death to save others’ lives.

In the three-and-a-half minute film, called Strangers, the hospital takes on this taboo, but with velvet gloves, creating a story that asks one simple question; what is an act that makes one’s life worth more? A deceased donor can donate and save up to eight lives by donating organs after death, and we witness eight stories which tell of seemingly disconnected strangers living their lives, but remaining connected by something unexpected.

The spot was created by Publicis Middle East Doha, and directed by Tahaab Rais through Deja Vu, and while the scenes we see may be ones of everyday life – a girl honing her rugby skills, a mother messing about with her two kids, a father telling a bedtime story, an old man feeding birds in a park – we find out that there is one thing which makes them all very special.