Recovery Doesn’t Wait

When I first heard Matthew’s story, a teenager who survived a traumatic car fire and months of painful recovery, I knew this campaign needed to do more than raise awareness. It needed to make people feel something. The challenge was turning a deeply personal, devastating experience into a public message that inspired empathy, urgency, and support, without sensationalizing pain.

Burn recovery is often invisible. It happens behind hospital doors, over long stretches of time, with small victories and quiet moments of strength. The problem was that most people didn’t understand what survivors like Matthew actually go through, or how essential the Arizona Burn Center is to that healing process.

Better L̶a̶t̶e̶r now was the response. The campaign name flipped the idea of “healing takes time” on its head, challenging viewers to act now, because time is something burn survivors can’t afford to wait on. We used crossed-out phrases like “Stronger E̶v̶e̶n̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y Now” and “Rise E̶v̶e̶n̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y Today” to visually interrupt the status quo and draw people in. Through storytelling, bold design, and strategic placement, we built a world where urgency meets hope, and where people could see themselves not just as bystanders, but as part of the solution.

This was more than a campaign. It was a commitment to telling the truth, raw, real, and full of heart, so that burn survivors like Matthew don’t just survive, they’re seen.

Click here to watch the full video.