Samsung is back to pull at your heartstrings again, this time with a campaign about premature babies.
Infants born too early face a greater risk of language and attention disorders later in life. The tech conglomerate created a new way to mitigate that danger—by helping mothers communicate with infants stuck in neonatal intensive care, as if they were still in the womb.
The campaign, titled "Voices of Life" and created by Leo Burnett Chicago, features an app that lets a mom record her heartbeat and other soothing sounds. A special speaker in her baby's hospital incubator plays back the audio, which Samsung's technology has muffled to better emulate the in-utero environment.
An emotional 2:30 video contextualizes the project with commentary from a mother and a pediatrician, capturing a small slice of the unimaginable stress and helplessness that comes with watching your newborn fight for life through sterile plastic.
It's hard to overstate how cold hospitals can be, a sensation that's amplified in such a high-stakes situation. The technology is especially notable for the fact that it lets mothers stay connected, even when they're not there—not to mention the obvious potential benefits for the child's development.
It's not Samsung's first time framing products as a way to bring families closer together. Last spring, it used a VR headset to help a father away for work witness the birth of his child, in a story that was happier, if more awkward. And just this week, the marketer promoted its VR gear as a way for frequent-traveler parents to virtually tuck their kids in with bedtime stories.
The simpler tech used here increases the message's charm, even if it builds on misfortune to increase brand value. But if it's really able to help the innocents and parents in question, at scale, by becoming widely available, then more power to it.
CREDITS
Client: Samsung
Agency: Leo Burnett Chicago
Campaign: Voices of Life
Chief Creative Officer: Mark Tutssel
Executive Creative Director: Dan Chodrow
CD/AD: Brandon Cox
CD/CW: Debbie Mudd
ACD/AD: Mikey Hester
Graphic Design: Rob Schellenberg, Frances Macleod
Executive Producer: Matt Blitz
Producers: Keith Jamerson, Caitlin VanderKlok
Account: Ben Bartolomei, Lisa Bamber
Strategy: Wells Davis, Layla Revis
Production Company: Whitelist Collective
Directors: Bobby Moser & Ben Mullinkosson
Director of Photography: Brandon Kapelow
Executive Producer: Jared Anderson
Line Producer: Rich Salamone
Editorial House: Cut and Run
Editor: Ben McCambridge
Assistant Editor: Lee Bacak
Executive Producer: Amburr Faris
Post Production: MPC
Colorist: Kris Smale
