Republica Havas recently launched a campaign focused on Alzheimer’s disease, bringing to light one of the biggest challenges of the condition — when patients lose awareness of where they are and get lost in public.
The campaign — called “Second,” or “Segundo” — is in support of the Alzheimer’s Disease Fight Organization. The campaign features several images that show a person temporarily passing through a beam of light. These signify moments of lucidity before they fall into complete darkness.
That temporary clarity is preceded and succeeded by shadows, described as “a past that many [patients] do not remember,” with the darkness in front of them representing the “uncertainty and unknown of what will come,” the agency noted in a press release.
Wandering can be dangerous and even life-threatening for patients, making it one of the biggest pressures on caregivers.
Some 6.7 million Americans were living with Alzheimer’s disease in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of that patient population, six in 10 people will wander at least once, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
The goal of Second is to address patients with Alzheimer’s who wander the streets,” explained Tony Waissmann, chief creative officer of Republica Havas, which is a sister agency of Havas Health & You and based in Miami
“They do not know who they are, where they are going, or what they are doing there. I think we found a clear and metaphorical way to show this situation… a moment of lucidity that is immediately lost in total darkness,” he said in a statement.
Jorge Plasencia, co-founder and CEO of Republica Havas, added that the campaign aims to be educational and seeks to raise awareness about the risks of wandering.
The push also seeks to help caregivers better understand what they can do to prevent wandering, such as planning activities and routines for Alzheimer’s patients, avoiding busy public places and planning ahead with a wandering response service.
“It is important for us at Republica Havas to create campaigns that not only sell but also educate,” Plasencia said. “With ‘Segundo,’ we once again join the Alzheimer’s Disease Fight Organization to raise awareness of another reality of how this debilitating disease manifests itself.”
The Second effort appears to be in line with Republica Havas’ stated goal to produce “culturally relevant health and wellness marketing.”
That mission was outlined in the summer of 2022 when Republica Havas teamed up with sibling agency Havas Health & You to launch Republica Havas Health,
The company said at the time it would work on campaigns that promote “deep cultural fluency” among Hispanic, Black, Asian American and LGBTQIA+ patients.
Havas originally acquired its stake in Republica back in 2018, after the two companies discussed partnering around multicultural healthcare communications.
