FCB Canada Develops Campaign for PTSD Sufferers

The healing power of nature is highlighted in a new campaign for Warrior Adventures Canada (WAC), a Canadian non-profit operated by active and retired military members that uses week-long whitewater canoeing, back-country camping and rock-climbing excursions to help PTSD sufferers reclaim their lives.

The campaign is built around a spot developed by FCB Canada in partnership with Toronto production company Someplace Nice. The 90-second spot, “Join Us,” follows a group of real-life veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD, including an actual service dog, as they embark on their journey to recovery into the Canadian wilderness with WAC adventures.

Although the spot highlights the beauty, restorative power and majesty of nature through its imagery, the audio subtly incorporates the sounds of war – inserted to provide context for the ongoing battle PTSD represents for its sufferers.

“These veterans and first-responders are no less injured than those that come back with visible scars and injuries. We just don’t see them that way and therefore provide less resources in the healing process. This piece is meant to reframe how we look at PTSD and how we treat it,” says Nancy Crimi-Lamanna, Chief Creative Officer at FCB Canada.