Ogilvy in New Zealand has created a series of collab lab coats that pair local artists with Auckland University Alumni in an effort to shift perceptions of where a Pharmacy Degree can take you.
The Facebook, Instagram and TikTok ads are live until early December and feature five Bachelor of Pharmacy alumni in eye-catching lab coats designed by five contemporary illustrators, accompanied by the hashtag #notjustawhitecoat
Ogilvy Group creative director Nina East says: “Pharmacists play an important role in the health and wellbeing of Aotearoa yet year-on-year there are fewer people entering the field than the health system needs.. There’s a common misconception among prospective students that a pharmacist’s role is simply dispensing medicines. The University of Auckland set out to tackle this head-on by celebrating some of our awesome pharmacists and demonstrating they are ‘more than just a white coat’.”
#notjustawhitecoat is an unexpected fashion drop from the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
“We arranged for the illustrators to team up with UOA Bachelor of Pharmacy alumni to create a one-off capsule collection of lab coats. Each coat tells a different pharmacist’s story, giving insight into the varied and important work they do, and aims to encourage high school students to consider pharmacy as a career,” says East.
The Head of Pharmacy in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Associate Professor Shane Scahill, says the campaign is a breath of fresh air and really shows the many different careers a Bachelor of Pharmacy graduate can take. “There is a huge demand for pharmacists in New Zealand and the government has quite a focus on making sure they get full value from the pharmacist workforce. Pharmacy is a fascinating and very rewarding career path but we need more pharmacy students training to be pharmacists.
“Luckily we are already seeing an upswing in interest off the back of the Ogilvy campaign. There was tremendous interest at the recent Faculty Open Day – the coats certainly pulled people in. We’d also very much like to thank the graduates and artists who took part – they had a lot of fun working on this unusual, but very effective, campaign.”
Find out more about each of our pharmacists at: www.notjustawhitecoat.auckland.ac.nz
Credits:
Client – University of Auckland, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences
Artists:
Chippy
Marcus Watson
Zac Fay
Richard Parry
Bonnie Brown
Junting Wei – Pharmacist
Sarah Wilkinson – Pharmacist
Stephen Choong – Pharmacist
Darren Svirskis – Pharmacist
Natalia Nu’u – Pharmacist
Agency – Ogilvy New Zealand
Kristal Knight – Executive Creative Director
Nina East – Group Creative Director
Gal Stern – Copywriter
Glenn Chapman – Art Director
Ian Wood – Studio
Jennifer Dupen – Group Account Director
Maddie Johnson – Account Manager
Jake Dennis – Photography and Video
Marzia Solarian – Video Editor
