Advertising showcases South Africa's private healthcare talent

The companies have teamed up to create an advertising campaign - which kicks off on television on 15 May - to pay tribute to South Africa's world-class doctors.

Discovery's Chief Marketing Officer, Hylton Kallner, says the advertisements aim to dispel some of the general negativity around the state of private healthcare.

"In the face of rising health care costs, regulatory threats and doctors leaving the country South Africans lose sight of the fact that their country has one of the top private health care systems in the world," says Kallner. "This campaign has been designed to showcase South Africa's doctors, the exceptional work they do and the lives they touch."

"The central message is that doctors are the real heroes of our healthcare system, who make the extraordinary ordinary through the amazing work they do," says Kallner. "We have excellent medical training institutions in South Africa and our healthcare professionals are sought-after the world over because of the first-rate standard of care they provide."

By illustration, an independent survey of global healthcare system performance, ranked South Africa 4th, after Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium. The Monitor study placed SA private healthcare sector ahead of Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany. This confirms Discovery Health's long-held belief that our private healthcare sector is an essential national asset.

The television and print campaign feature individual members of the medical schemes under Discovery Health's administration who have been personally affected by an illness or trauma, but saved by the work of skilled doctors.

The campaign makes use of statistics from the Discovery Health database to demonstrate the scale of their work and the impact they have. The use of members' true stories brings the statistics to life.

The ad begins with a young girl removing her head scarf, revealing that she is bald. While the voice over informs us of how many cancer sufferers were helped by doctors last year, the young girl leaves her hospital ward, prepared to face the world without her hair.

In the scenes that follow, we see several people who have been personally affected by a tragic illness or trauma but are now alive and well, thanks to their doctors. In one of the scenarios, we see a man with a prosthetic leg in a physiotherapist's office, bravely struggling to run on a treadmill, while his wife and child look on. From the grimace on his face and the sweat pouring down his cheeks, we can see he is struggling. Yet for a brief moment, he gives his anxious son a reassuring wink, showing he's ok and will get through this.

Interestingly, almost all the cast members had actually suffered from the illness or trauma that they were performing in the ad.

The director, Jonathan Cohen of Cinergy Films, felt that it was important to work with people who were the real thing. "At times, it felt like the cast weren't acting, but actually just reliving their struggles. I think it's added a lot to the final film", added Cohen.

In the final scene, we see a doctor sit down outside a surgery theatre. He's just performed a surgery and seems to be proud of the work he's done, as the voice over says, "This is the work of South African doctors, some of the world's finest."

"This is a very personal campaign for us," says Kallner. "Our business is about making sure that the members under our management have access to the best possible care and the skills of the doctors in this country make this possible.''

The television advertisement will flight on DSTV, MNET, SuperSport 2 and 3 from 15 May 2008 The print campaign will start running towards the end of May.