Bandanna Day, the fund-raising drive for youth charity, Canteen, has been quieter over recent years. Many Australians know Bandanna Day from their school days, a chance for the Australian community to stand in solidarity with teens facing cancer. This year is Canteen’s 40th anniversary and creative production MADE THIS is giving new fund-raising drive a new vibrancy, along with a unique commercial radio partnership that bands together SCA, ARN and Nova Entertainment.
Canteen needed a cost-effective and attention-grabbing campaign for visual formats. And so the AI Fail concept was born, an idea developed by Vinne Schifferstein, Marie-Celine Merret and the MADE THIS team, that uses deliberately flawed AI-generated images to highlight the absurdity of relying on artificial support, and the critical need for real help for young people facing cancer. To amplify the idea, media partners have donated OOH and social placements.
“By using humour, we can humanise a serious issue in a way that resonates. It’s not about making light of cancer it’s about making space to talk about it,” explained Vinne Schifferstein, managing director, MADE THIS.
“We immediately got behind the idea,” added Kerry Kalcher, Canteen’s head of marketing & communications. “It stands out, it’s fun, but it makes an important point loud and clear – young people need real support, not artificial help.”
The campaign features a collection of hilarious AI-generated assets rolled out across out-of-home (OOH) and social media channels, showing bizarre and glitchy imagery that’s impossible to ignore. At the heart of the campaign is a simple message – while machines are improving fast, they still can’t offer what young people with cancer need most – real, human care.
“It wasn’t actually that easy to produce the fails,” stated Marie-Celine Merret, head of ai & creative technology, MADE THIS. “The models have improved so much over the past few months, we had to roll back to older versions of the models to produce the best and funniest fails.”
The campaign officially launched on October 1 and will run nationally until Bandanna Day on October 30.
Every bandanna funds Canteen’s life-changing support. They may be bought here bandannaday.org.au to show young people facing cancer they’re not alone.
Credits
Client: Canteen
Executive Director, Marketing & Fundraising: Janelle Cook
Head of Marketing & Communications: Kerry Kalcher
Creative & Production: MADE THIS
Managing Director: Vinne Schifferstein
Head of AI & Creative Tech: Marie-Celine Merret
Creative Director: Marianne Little
Art Director: Richard Swan
Designer: Bobby Haiqalsyah
AI Artist: Bob Connelly
Integrated Producer:Meera Srikanth
Media Agency: UM
Creative Connections Manager: Caitlin Watters
Client Partner:Ellie Graham
Senior Planning Director:Yelia Schnelle
Partners supporting the campaign: SCA, ARN, Nova, Acast, SEN, Producey, ATN, Motio, ScentreGroup, JCD, Cartology, QMS, VMO, oOh!, Mamamia, Pedestrian TV, The Daily Aus, Newscorp and TikTok.
