CAPTURING THE SOUNDS OF CANCER DYING

Tim Jones & Ankit Vahia Chief Creative Officer & Chief Strategy Officer Grey NY

The idea

The American Cancer Society estimates that every day in the United States, over 5000 people hear the words: “You have cancer”. We wanted to give these people a new sound. ‘The Most Beautiful Sound’ is a scientific breakthrough that, for the first time in human history, has captured the sound of cancer cells dying. It started out as a provocatively wonderful idea from Grey New York and developed into a worldwide search for a scientific institution and scientist who was working at the cutting-edge of medicine, to help turn this thought into reality. After a 2-year clinical journey, in partnership and development with Harvard Medical School, the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, and Massachusetts General Hospital, we were able to capture a new sound in oncology.

A sound that we, and The American Society of Clinical Oncology, believes every person living with cancer deserves to hear.

The science

We co-ran a research study, titled: “The Acquisition and Sonification of Coherent Raman images of cancer cell death”, conducted under the supervision of Principal Investigator Conor Evans, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Wellman Center for Photomedicine & Harvard Medical School.

“There’s motion and vibration within all cells, including those with cancer. Using a Stimulated Ramen scattering technique, we measured the movement of multiple cancer cells at the precise moment of cellular death and transcribed those motions into sounds you can hear. The idea of taking something invisible and giving it sound and giving it perspective, giving it the ability to be perceived struck me as something that could be very powerful for patients in their journey fighting cancer.”

– Dr. Conor Evans, Ph.D. Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School.

The study concluded with the world’s first scientifically validated sonification of cancer death, across 7 cancer cell lines within the most prevalent cancer types. This sound was used as the basis for the campaign.

The campaign

We launched the campaign with an online film, which captures the real-life experience of cancer survivorTabby Duff - as she listens to the sound of her own cancer cells dying for the first time. We also shared the sound with 10 real cancer patients in a controlled and regulated experience, with overwhelming impact. These moving moments will form part of a larger activation at this year’s ASCO conference, where we will bring the sound to the global oncology community through experiential sound booths and installations.

“This is more than just a simple sound. It has immense potential as a therapy, giving our patients more resilience and psychological support”. – Ann Griffiths, Clinical

Nurse Specialist at the Clatterbridge Cancer Center, NHS Foundation Trust.

People could hear other sounds of survival and patient diagnosis stories online. We also made ‘The Most Beautiful Sound’ an open-sourced sound therapy that is available to download for all hospitals, universities, patients, and caregivers.

“Both remarkable and poignant, ‘The Most Beautiful Sound’ serves not only as a testament to the growing collaboration between creativity, technology, and medicine, but also as a tool for patients to meditate, visualize and manifest, while harnessing the science of psychoneuroimmunology to build their resilience and enable a more positive cancer outcome.” – Conn Bertish, Brain Cancer survivor and Founder of Cancer Dojo.

The campaign will continue to grow, as we explore new partnerships with artists, musicians, and doctors to help bring this sound to those that desperately need to hear it.

Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the sound of cancer dying.

Lucas Sfair CEO & Director Canja

Audio Culture

Any work from the industry that excited you from last year?

I loved “The Wish” by Serviceplan, which won the Grand Prix in Film Craft at Cannes,. It's such a beautiful pure narrative and visually cinematic.

What trends have you seen emerging within Health & Wellness and Pharma?

I believe that soon Health won't be seen as a separate part of the industry. There are many campaigns made by health agencies that are winning big in consumer focussed categories and we are seeing more non health agencies winning in healthcare categories. I think DATA and AI are being are set to define the industry, we are starting to see the potential in what we can achieve with these new mediums, the ways in which it will branch out to every aspect of work will be really exciting to see.

What were the biggest obstacles you faced in 2022 and are there any challenges you expect to see in 2023?

The biggest obstacles in 2022 weren’t from the industry, but from society itself. In Brazil, we had the strangest and most volatile elections ever in our country, it created a tension unseen before. But at least we were lucky enough to have elections. Fake News played a huge part in this, it's a real threat that can endanger democracy and shows how technology can be manipulated when used by the wrong people. The advertising industry can help combat this by making people aware of what they are being exposed to.

What advice would you give to other creatives / companies who are trying to break into the Top 10?

If you tested something and it worked well, please don't repeat it. Always try to be fresh, look for new solutions and don't let yourself be dominated by something you've done before. Look for the next thing. Forget your past success. Go forward, keep going and push hard. Change everything all the time, even if you've won before with your current structure, you can never stand still.

What are your creative ambitions for 2023, and how important are creative awards in achieving those goals?

Canja was awarded No1 Music & Sound Company of the year at LIA and D&AD. This is something unheard of for a production company based in Brazil and beyond our wildest expectations. Our goal is to continue to win in the Craft categories (music and sound) and go beyond advertising. These awards can highlight our work and always help build relationships with top creatives and agencies.

How do you spot and evaluate award winning work?

I always look for the problem. I think that when it starts with an interesting problem, it will end with an interesting solution. For example: when everyone was trying to solve the same problems in sugar consumption, LIL SUGAR came and talked about everything that wasn't called sugar. It’s something that started with an interesting problem, 'sugar is disguised using other names". The work was then so interesting and different that hadn't been looked at in that way before, then it went on to win the Grand Prix for Good at Cannes as well as countless others. I had the pleasure to work on this project from the beginning and the concept always felt exciting and fresh.

Is there anything exciting you’re working on now? (That you can tell us about).

We're working on some big projects that could come back to the awards stage. I can't tell you about them yet but all I can say is that we're working on something within Health & Wellness and Pharma that involves a Rock'n Roll legend. It will be great!