On the heels of an incredibly successful “MomStrong” video campaign, Cossette was asked to help drive donations to the foundation for Father’s Day.

For fathers of SickKids patients, there is little time to show the true emotion that they supress deep down inside. Focused on providing for the family, the dads wait until they get around their kids and family before letting go.

In a 1:30 online film, the agency followed a blue-collar father of a real SickKids kid as he goes about his gruelling workday in the rainy, dreary streets of Toronto. A sweet voiced remake of Axl Rose’s “Sweet Child of Mine” plays over top. The day is purposefully long as to play into how long and drawn out the day becomes when you only have one thing on your mind, your kid and family, and you are so far from seeing them.

The final stop shows the father alone in an elevator, fighting back a tear. But as he walks into a brightly lit room, he sees the only people he’s been waiting so long to see and tears give way to a joyous smile.

The campaign helped increase year-over-year donations by 176%. It also tracked 40 stories in Canada, 41 abroad, as well as 13.8 million earned media impressions.