Tim McGraw & Vanderbilt – Give to the next breath

As the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt neared completion of its four-story, $100 million expansion project, the hospital’s development team asked Stonecastle to create a TV commercial promoting a fundraising campaign called “Give To The Next Breath.” Stonecastle’s job was to establish an emotional connection, in 60 seconds, that would motivate viewers to join the campaign.

  • Client: Vanderbilt Medical Center
  • Agency: Stonecastle
  • Type: Healthcare, Brands
  • Deliverable: TV Commercial
  • Services: Creative Strategy, Video Production, Scriptwriting

The Project

The Project


A little star power never hurts

 

It was important to Vanderbilt’s development team to tell an attention-grabbing story about the need for the new hospital wing. So we came up with a scripted concept that ran counter to what you see in most hospital ads: no words at all – just a little girl roaming the empty hallways in search of a way to be a part of her brother’s healing process. It also didn’t hurt that Tim McGraw agreed to film an introduction to the commercial in the still-unfinished wing of the hospital.

tim mcgraw stands in the still-unfinished wing of vanderbilt's childrens hospital
little girl looks into incubator where her preemie brother lies

How we worked

 

Vanderbilt needed a creative partner who could take a rough concept and execute it all the way from script to delivery. Filmed on-location over a two-day period, Stonecastle produced the TV spot with separate crews: one larger commercial-setup for Tim McGraw, and another documentary-sized crew for the subsequent scenes. This approach provided an efficient, cost-conscious production that also left the smallest footprint as our crews navigated a working hospital.