Direct > Direct: Sectors

THE PILL-BOARD

DMINUSONE, Seoul / CHILDFUND KOREA / 2024

Awards:

Bronze Spikes Asia
CampaignCampaign(opens in a new tab)
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Overview

Credits

Overview

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The Pill-Board campaign aims to find and assist young carers who are not receiving help. By applying creative designs to pill packages which are commonly encountered in the caregiving process, the campaign directly seeks out and supports these young carers.

Background

Young carer : 18 years old or under who helps look after a relative with a disability, illness, mental health condition, or drug or alcohol problem.

Young carers need help, but unfortunately in korea, the lack of supportive legislation and comprehensive surveys makes it challenging to identify and support these deserving young people. Since young carers remain largely invisible within the welfare system, they are not able to receive support . Childfund Korea, which conducts various activities for children both domestically and internationally, has planned a campaign to raise awareness of the existence and reality of young carers, and to find and provide direct support to these hidden children across South Korea.

Please provide any cultural context that would help the jury understand any cultural, national or regional nuances applicable to this work e.g. local legislation, cultural norms, a national holiday or religious festival that may have a particular meaning.

-Unlike abroad, Korea lacks legal and policy support for young carers, and even the young carers often fail to recognize that they are the ones who need help due to the sense of responsibility to care for their family and the Confucian value of 'filial piety' (a unique Korean sentiment towards taking care of one's parents).

- The level of national recognition and policy response to young carers is categorized from level 1 (comprehensive and sustainable policies in place) to level 7 (no response), and South Korea falls into the level 7 group, which indicates a lack of response.

-In South Korean pharmacies, it is common to dispense medicine in pill packages (especially in transparent vinyl for medicine) marked with 'morning', 'afternoon', and 'evening'.

Describe the creative idea

Pharmacies are the places young carers visit most frequently after school. Recognizing this, we have strategically chosen pharmacies as key locations to connect with these kids, using pill packages as a medium to deliver our message. So, we’ve designed pill packages with illustrations reflecting young carers' daily lives, showing them they're not alone and support is available. We've made it simpler for both young carers and their surrounding community to request help by including a QR code and a phone number on each package.

Describe the strategy

Big advertising spends and billboards couldn't locate them before, but the palm-sized pill packages became a much more eye-catching advertising medium than any large advertising billboard. In South Korea, pharmacies typically pack medicines in transparent, palm-sized plastic bag. (Typically there are no images or drawings, only the words "morning”, "afternoon" and "evening" are written.) This tiny pill-package is something that everyone visiting a pharmacy comes into contact with, and we thought it would be a sharp and definite medium to convey a message to young carers. Because they meet the pill-package everyday for their caregiving. So we draw and filled this empty space with the daily lives of young carers. This campaign was the first-ever to utilize this space for messaging and very effective not only for young carers but also for public to recognize the children who need help. Additionally, by incorporating a QR code, it facilitated immediate action.

Describe the execution

Messages to find young carers were included on the palm-sized pill package(pill packages of South Korea), which previously only had the words "morning," "afternoon," and "evening." The daily routines of young carers' caregiving were illustrated and described for each time of day to increase visibility, and a QR code and phone number for requesting help were also provided. Over 5 million of Pill-Boards were produced and distributed to more than 300 pharmacies across South Korea. The campaign was centered around pharmacies frequently visited by young carers, enabling them to directly receive the campaign messages. It also informed a broader audience, including pharmacists, about the realities faced by young carers and created opportunities for them to be found and supported.

List the results

-Over 5 million Pill-Board packages have been distributed nationwide (pharmacies)

-And, after launching the campaign, we were able to find the hidden young carers within just one day and began offering support. We are still continuing to identify and assist young carers.

- The unprecedented Pill-Board design in South Korea made many people pay attention to the campaign.

-We achieved 10,287,000+ views and 51,400+ reactions

(Only Domestic Result. Spread through various communities and social media)

- Ultimately, the Pill-Board's impact led to National Assembly discussions, 

prompting a reevaluation of laws which had been pending. (put back into legislative consideration)

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