Safehaven’s Fold-Away Illusion Exposes the Kids Toronto Doesn’t See

Safehaven creates two ads in one for Giving Tuesday.

Keeping with the giving spirit, Safehaven Toronto, working with AOR TLC has created a full page print ad that is two ads in one. The full page print ad running in the Toronto Star asks a simple question. Who gets seen in our city, and who gets missed?

At first glance, the illustrated ad is a warm, illustrated landscape of Toronto filled with one hundred everyday people. A crowd you recognise in a city that feels alive, with the headline, 'All kids are equal but some are medically complex and deserve to be treated like any other kid, happy, healthy and seen.'

But the page is not meant to be viewed once and turned. Readers are invited to physically fold the ad, and in doing so, a hidden image and headline emerges.

One child who is medically complex appears at the centre of the city, accompanied by the new headline, 'All kids deserve to be seen.'

The reveal is the point. Medically complex children often live in the margins of public awareness, even though they are part of every community, every neighbourhood, every family story. This ad turns a familiar city scene into a moment of discovery, reminding readers that every child deserves to be seen, and supported.

The work is an interactive use of newsprint, designed to stop people mid read, mid coffee, mid commute, and to create a small but powerful act of attention.

On Giving Tuesday, that attention can become action, with a direct call to support medically complex kids and the families who care for them.