“Unbreakable” tells the real-life story of Barbara, characterized as a CGI bunny. Barbara’s tale illustrates how she went from therapy to therapy, misdiagnosis to misdiagnosis, and doctor to doctor, with no one having the right expertise to help. The film chronicles Barbara’s worsening condition and loss of hope, until she finally finds the answer she needs.

The film starts inside a toy factory with Barbara on the conveyor belt. Unlike the other bunnies, Barbara coughs and tears her stitching, causing her to get rejected by the sorter and tossed outside the factory. Determined to fix herself, Barbara goes in search of a solution. She tries out various remedies in town, but nothing holds for long. At her lowest point, she sees a piece of string resembling her stitching which leads her to the person she was looking for. The closing frames show the quote from Barbara that inspired the animation.

With physicians misunderstanding their patients’ complaints for years, we knew that a patient simply telling her story wasn’t going to make an impact. Instead, we employed the art of storytelling to deliver a breakthrough campaign to get doctors’ attention.

To illustrate Barbara’s misdiagnosis journey with NTM, we created an animation in 3D full-color CGI. This story arc needed rich and poetic visuals to capture the intricacies of the emotion we wanted to convey. The fantastical layer paves the way for tackling Barbara’s deeper concerns. Due to the bunny’s size and POV, everything was executed in close-up view and fully textured—from the conveyor belt to the shopkeepers’ workstations. For example, the bunny was composed of 6 million unique hairs to make her appear hyper-realistic. All of this was aimed at helping viewers connect and empathize with Barbara along her journey.

According to the US Federal Trade Commission, advertisements must be truthful, cannot be deceptive or unfair, and must be evidence-based. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration advises that disease-related advertisements/communications be disease or health condition-specific, enhance education, be clear and accurate, and contain a responsible public health message.

This campaign targets pulmonologists and infectious disease specialists—the HCPs who diagnose, treat, and manage patients with NTM lung disease. Far too often, these physicians don’t include NTM in their differential diagnosis nor prioritize the treatment of this progressive rare disease, leaving patients suffering for years without answers or reprieve.