The Federation of American Hospitals member organizations and their caregivers were heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they found themselves attacked with negative narratives around hospital uses of the Provider Relief Fund, hospital consolidation, anecdotes about the availability of personal protective equipment and other COVID-related matters. FAH needed to combat this flurry of negative publicity in Washington DC and the media, and to inform the public of its members' beneficial role in their communities.

We developed an inspirational campaign that drove awareness of the FAH organization and the positive impact FAH member hospitals/health systems had during the unanticipated COVID healthcare crisis. "The Real Story" campaign addressed issues of criticism head-on by reminding our audience there is always another side to every story. Our campaign platform combined impactful personal stories with equally powerful facts/statistics, so that important voices - like that of a hospital caregiver or a patient - was heard above all the negative chatter. A key visual component to this campaign was a metaphorical "megaphone-combined-with-a-stethoscope" - a symbol designed to amplify the heartfelt stories of the healthcare workers and their patients.