The power of creativity, science and mom genes

I love what I do. Being an ad creative is my dream job, and I feel so lucky to say that. Yet I’m also keenly aware that nobody ever got on the airplane intercom and yelled “Is there a Creative Director on board!?”

In other words, we’re not saving lives.  

We’ve all heard this phrase, either to keep our self-important advertising jobs in perspective, or to relieve the pressure that can put a chokehold on creativity. And I’d say 97% of the time, it’s true. We aren’t saving lives.  

But sometimes, we’re lucky enough to be part of a project that can save lives. Not in a hypothetical way, but in a results-published-in-a-scientific-journal way. And in a way that leaves you feeling inspired, humbled and intensely gratified.  

In 2019, WongDoody discovered that UNC at Chapel Hill had been working diligently to uncover a genetic cause of postpartum depression, or PPD. PPD is a silent and isolating disease that affects 1 in 7 new moms and is the leading cause of maternal mortality from suicide.  

But UNC’s research was slow going. For the study to reach any actionable conclusions, they needed a much larger sample size, and getting moms to openly talk about PPD was hard enough. Convincing them to donate saliva samples through the mail? That was a whole different challenge.  

UNC needed to get the word out to gather thousands more spit kits. And that’s where WongDoody came in.  

Using the Sounding Board, our agency’s insights model, we started with research and interviews of moms who’d lived through PPD. We heard their struggles, shared their tears and saw their intense desire to help other moms avoid PPD’s debilitating effects. Armed with these emotional insights, we created Mom Genes Fight PPD, an end-to-end campaign to bring awareness to the UNC study and inspire moms of any age to donate saliva samples to help determine PPD’s genetic cause, and eventually, its cure.  

To raise awareness and encourage moms to talk about PPD, we created an extensive social media campaign, produced a mom-influencer pop-up event, and released a beautiful, hauntingly sad :60 video inspired by denim advertising.  

To encourage spit kit returns, we completely customized the Apple Research app, website, and DNA test kits for a more seamless and accessible user experience.  

The campaign garnered a ton of attention from regular moms, celebrity moms, and the press, and most importantly, the DNA samples started pouring in. Despite the pandemic, the number of spit kits UNC received doubled.  

But here’s the best news of all. Mom Genes Fight PPD helped UNC at Chapel Hill gather enough DNA samples to complete the largest study of its kind to uncover a genetic correlation to PPD. The results, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “confirm PPD as a polygenic and heritable phenotype,” according to Dr. Jerry Guintivano, psychiatric geneticist and first author of the paper.

In other words, UNC found a genetic link to PPD! Which is a first step towards early intervention and treatment.  

So, while the fight against PPD is not over, round one brought us that much closer to a cure.    

According to Dr. Meltzer-Brody, a reproductive psychiatrist who co-led the research at UNC, “thanks to the creativity, strategic insights, and connections of WongDoody, we were able to take our PPD study from struggling to success. Mom Genes Fight PPD helped us gather enough samples to make the study viable, and the results are a crucial step forward in our work to help save mothers’ lives, as well as improve the lives of countless moms and babies around the world.”  

We have a saying here at WongDoody: Use our Superpowers for Good. We see an enormous opportunity and responsibility to activate our creativity, connections, and voices to help those who aren’t being heard.  

In this case, it was the 500,000 women who suffer from PPD each year just in the U.S. And most profoundly, the mothers whose PPD leads them to suicide.  

So many people contributed — and continue to contribute — to this cause to help find a cause and a cure for PPD. The tireless researchers at UNC. The moms who bravely spoke of their PPD experiences and shared the word of Mom Genes Fight PPD to encourage participation. The women from around the world who mailed in their spit kits. And a small but mighty group of ad folks who rallied around this cause to turn a barely moving study into a powerful movement.  

It turns out, sometimes creativity can save lives.  

And that makes me love my job even more.  

Read more about the campaign below.

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