We made “sorry” a bad word, by showing that any off-colour, profanity-laden reaction is better than “Sorry”.

“The S-Word” features people with Down syndrome offering humorously inappropriate suggestions to welcome a baby with Down syndrome. The video debunks stereotypes of people with Down syndrome as struggling, unintelligent, and a “burden”.

Anything But Sorry was executed across three pillars:

1. Awareness

The S-Word video, launched during Canadian Down Syndrome Week, November 1-7, 2017, drove awareness on Facebook.

2. Engagement

The provocative nature of the S-word video made it inherently share-worthy. We worked with Down syndrome influencers to share the video more broadly.

3. Creating Behaviour Change

The S-Word’s wide-scale social reach prompted one couple to share our video on Facebook to announce that their baby had Down syndrome, eliciting congratulations and zero sorries.

S-word was the key element for a campaign which achieved the following:

Driving awareness:

- Earned 1.3 billion impressions from 106 pieces of international coverage including 4 TV segments and stories in Huffington Post, Today’s Parent, and Canada’s major news outlets.

- 365,000 total video views on social media, with $1,200 CAD spent on Facebook.

Driving engagement:

- 64,000 social shares including e-cards, video and news stories.

- 350% increase in requests for educational support material.

Changing attitudes and behaviour:

- In quantitative research, 77.25% of respondents said that the video changed their perceptions of people with Down syndrome and 87% agreed they would not say “sorry” to parents of a Down syndrome baby.2

- The campaign drove 330% increase in donations to CDSS.

- The most incredible result was the S-Word became an inspirational tool for a couple to announce their baby had Down syndrome.

2 Toluna Analytics