A Little Empathy

Healthcare advertising tends to rely on the same tropes again and again; a hand on a hand, knowing nod, and lots and lots of smiling. Healthcare system Emplify Health has taken an approach that breaks off from typical healthcare advertising with its latest campaign, introducing a new animated character designed to pull at people’s heartstrings. Developed in partnership with C-K, “A Little Empathy” follows a small, blue, animated heart called Little Empathy.

The 30-second hero spot opens with Little Empathy trying to find its place in the world. Faced with busy streets, rainy days, and even a sleeping dog, Little Empathy feels perpetually cast aside, overlooked despite having so much love to offer. Then, one day, Little Empathy makes a friend, who takes it to a place where it will always feel useful and appreciated. That new friend, a doctor, walks Little Empathy into a place where healthcare is all about caring: Emplify Health. Dozens of little blue hearts greet Little Empathy and engulf it into the compassionate community it craves, underscoring how a little empathy can change everything.

Additional 15-second spots highlight how, when you show a little empathy, you share a little too. Little Empathy appears again to actualize this notion, this time with the friends it meets at Emplify Health at the end of the hero spot. The theme of support runs through the shorter spots, with one particularly memorable one showing Little Empathy looking upset beneath a cloud – until a friend, another blue heart, lassos it away to reveal a sun.

The campaign is running across TV, social, OOH, print and digital in the upper Midwest (MN, IA, WI, MI). Emplify Health also created a plushie toy of Little Empathy that has begun bringing smiles to people across and beyond the healthcare system.