Factory Helps Open The Door
 For Teens Fighting Cancer


Say you’re a teen. Say you were just diagnosed with cancer. Say your hospital gives you two options for your treatment and recovery. You can hang with the little kids or you can hang with the old people.

At too many hospitals in America, those are the options you’d have. Because most hospitals don’t have facilities created with teens and young adults in mind.

Factory client, First Citizens Bank, is working to help change that stark reality. And we’re helping spread the word.

This week, we launched a new initiative on behalf of First Citizens – an integrated multimedia campaign to raise awareness of Teen Cancer America, a nonprofit founded in 2012 by rock icons Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who.

Teen Cancer America works with hospitals to create spaces where teens and young adults can feel more at home during their treatment and recovery, with professional staff who understand the unique physical and psychological challenges of teen. First Citizens Bank recently signed on as a major corporate sponsor of Teen Cancer America, helping open new facilities in the Carolinas and raising both awareness and money in the Southeast.

For our part, Factory’s been leading the development of the communication effort. We’ve just launched a new :60 second television spot, “Open The Door,” which features a brand new music track exclusively created for this effort: A new version of the Pete Townshend single, Let My Love Open The Door, recorded by Who front man Roger Daltrey.

“The truth is, we didn’t really think the band would go for this,” said Factory founder and Executive Creative Director Mark Lantz. “We had other ideas, but we really liked what those lyrics – ‘let my love open the door’ – could say about the need to create these facilities. We were surprised as anyone when we got a yes to the idea of Roger Daltrey covering a Pete Townshend single.”

Directed by Jeffrey DeChausse of Tiny Elephant – who’s directed all the television spots in our Forever First campaign for First Citizens – the commercial tells the story of a young woman on her first visit to a Teen Cancer America facility. “It’s hard sometimes being a teen,” the voiceover says. “It’s harder still when you’re a teen diagnosed with cancer. Too old for the kids. Too young for the adults.”

Accompanying the television is a full suite of marketing materials, including radio, print, point of sale, collateral and more.

To learn more about the effort and the challenge of teen cancer, visit LetMyLoveOpenTheDoor.com or TeenCancerAmerica.org.