In 2019 SS4C hosted a National Climate Strike, causing outrage across the country. Politicians, public figures, and the media condemned students for missing a day off school.

Instead of addressing their concerns, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison criticised students, calling for “more learning, less activism”.

Despite the rebuke, students were emboldened by the extraordinary attention generated for the cause and SS4C became famous across Australia.

By 2022, however, the group’s momentum had all but vanished from the public arena as media coverage turned instead to the post-pandemic cost of living crisis.

Our brief was to help SS4C reinvigorate their call to action for 2023 with a communications idea that would earn an outsized share of attention, and alert Australia of the ongoing threat of the climate crisis.

After years of declining coverage of climate protests, the sick note fired up the media. And before students had marched out of the classroom to make their voices heard, their sick notes were already protesting for them.

In one week, the campaign reached 


- 2.1 billion impressions.

- Media and PR coverage across 26 countries

- $58 million in earned media.

- $0 media spend.

Young Australians are deeply familiar with the threat of climate crisis, which is a rising cause of anxiety and other mental health challenges among school aged children globally. We knew that the audience we needed to reach on their behalf was the mainstream Australian press who would help SS4C communicate the urgency of their cause and put pressure on politicians to act. More importantly, we wanted to ensure that the media coverage we generated helped to foster the sense of community SS4C was known for, so that young Australians would feel less alone and helpless in the fight against an issue that can feel too overwhelming to tackle. There is strength in numbers, so the more people we could help rally (and the more coverage we could earn) the stronger our support for SS4C’s mission.

A doctor's certificate is not normally considered media. But we knew it had the power to deliver results for SS4C.

So, we made it the heart of our strategy, making it worker harder than any other doctor's certificate. In addition to driving to the protest site, young people were able to print out their own notes, meaning the media itself became a key advocacy tool to help support SS4C in getting the word out.