Republik directs Swab The World’s most recent video

Montreal, November 24th - This video addresses overlooked social injustice in the cancer treatment world to launch Swab the World’s first global fundraising campaign.

The agency was mandated to create a video for the Swab The World, a foundation which has been helping people fight blood diseases since 2018 by working against the under-representation of non-white communities in stem cell donor databases around the world. The foundation fights on a daily basis so that everyone can have equal chances to survive cancer, which is not currently the case.

A hard-hitting video narrated by a local rapper

The Republik team was motivated to be addressing social injustice issues and wanted to make sure the message was held loud and clear.

“That you can feel discrimination even in donor banks is a serious matter. That’s why I gave the video a fast, jerky rhythm, with colours that are both super intense and a bit dark, in order to show how dire the needs brought forward by Swab The World are.”
- Tyran Trieu, Motion Designer

Without distorting Swab The World’s identity, Republik worked with a darker colour palette than the foundation usually displays as well as an outspoken tone in the words used in the video.

Cult Nation, who collaborated on the project, was inspired by this notion of outspokenness in the creation of the original musical composition that can be heard in the video, with a local rapper providing the narration. The combination of these elements makes for a hard-hitting video that elevates this important message.

The story behind this video

Last spring, on May 27th, while almost at the peak of the pandemic, Republik provided Défis Solidaires with a free video production in order to raise a few thousand dollars for Les Cuisines Solidaires, a social initiative headed by the Tablée des Chefs. In turn, this allowed a local business to benefit from video production work it could not have been able to afford otherwise.

“The Swab The World Foundation was a dream client for us. Not only was its mission similar to ours, working everyday to move things forward, but its cause is also perfectly aligned with our values.”
- Marie-Hélène Leclerc, Client services director at Republik