While AstraZeneca’s previous efforts to showcase the power of science have taken a broader approach, highlighting clinical discoveries, new technologies and sustainability work, the drugmaker’s newest corporate campaign gets into the nitty-gritty of science’s impact on individual patients’ everyday lives.
The newly launched “What Science Can Do” campaign, a longstanding tagline for AstraZeneca, centers around the stories of two patients who have benefitted from the company’s therapeutics. Each of their stories are the subject of short films directed by Reed Morano, an Emmy-winning filmmaker best known for her work on “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The campaign’s website notes, “What science can do is a celebration of our shared curiosity about the limitless possibilities of science.” Further down, it adds, “Change lives. That’s what our science can do.”
The first film stars Chloe, a woman in her mid-60s. She’s shown getting a tattoo of a bell on her upper arm to commemorate surviving cancer while joking about what her kids will think of her new ink. Throughout the touching scenes, onscreen text reads, “Chloe didn’t have a plan for cancer. Not many people do. But we’re harnessing science to change what it means to treat cancer. To help people like Chloe beat the odds. And that’s something worth remembering.”
In the second short film, middle-schooler Nico is shown running through the halls of his school, even as a text overlay notes that “[six] months ago, Nico’s asthma attacks were so bad he could barely walk at times.” He continues running to get to his classroom—joyfully laughing off a passing teacher’s scolding—as the text continues: “Thanks to breakthroughs in our labs, more patients are finding the courage to break free. So run, Nico, run.”
Neither video is tied to a particular product, focusing only on each patient’s triumphant story, rather than which of AstraZeneca’s scientific advancements and treatments helped them achieve that victory. AZ does market several oncology and respiratory drug products, including Enhertu, Imfinzi and Lynparza across breast, lung and ovarian cancers, as well as asthma treatment Airsupra, its most recent therapy in the space.
Morano, too, has a chance to share her own story. In a behind-the-scenes video documenting the making of Chloe and Nico’s films, the director notes that she felt a particular kinship to Chloe’s story, as she, too, had previously gotten a tattoo to commemorate her own battle against cancer.
“On the one hand, that experience is something you want to sort of forget. But also, you don’t want to let yourself forget it, because you’ve changed in that process,” Morano says in the clip. “It sounds a little cliché, but you are more grateful for the little things.”
AstraZeneca has long made a point of showcasing “What Science Can Do.” It’s been a running theme in corporate campaigns dating back several years, including in a 2022 initiative that was centered on highlighting the pharma’s sustainability efforts and ran under the “Science Can” title.
Meanwhile, the company’s global website leads with a large graphic depicting the slogan. A dedicated “What science can do” tab on the page compiles both clinical publications and company blog posts celebrating AstraZeneca’s latest therapeutic discoveries, technological advancements and sustainability work, among other innovations.
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