Nurses - Last words

This poignant public service announcement (PSA) was produced as part of the Vaccine Hesitancy Project for the Centre for Analytics & Behavioural Change (CABC), a non-profit organisation specialising in research and data analytics to ensure a safer internet. As a purpose-driven content creation agency, Iron Heart was tasked with crafting an emotionally resonant and impactful piece of health communication content during one of the most turbulent periods of the pandemic.

At the time of release, fewer than 50% of South African adults had been vaccinated. The Omicron variant was dominating headlines, the fourth wave loomed, and trust in both government and health institutions had reached record lows across sub-Saharan Africa. Conspiracy theories and vaccine misinformation were spreading rapidly across social media platforms. Urgent, human-centred messaging was needed—something authentic enough to stop even the most cynical user in their scroll and reach people who had valid concerns about the vaccine.

The PSA is narrated by real South African nurses—frontline healthcare workers who had experienced the horrors of COVID-19 and witnessed the devastation it caused, both in their private and professional lives. Told from the perspective of the patients they lost to the virus, the people who probably didn’t think it would take their lives, the “Last Words” campaign shared expressions of regret, fear, and heartbreaking longing for loved ones. It humanised the pandemic in a way statistics never could, transforming the abstract into something deeply personal and relatable.

The video was intentionally unbranded, so it could be used freely by NGOs, workplaces, and community leaders across the continent. It was hosted on The Healthy African Project’s Facebook page—building a 7,000-strong community through modest paid media spend.

Its central message: “Have no regrets. Get vaccinated and be there for your family,” was designed to incite perception and behaviour change, not fear. The narrative was a punch to the gut and a spear to the heart, authentically delivered, and the film was shot beautifully to hero the nurses.

At Iron Heart, we believe that the best content is built on truth and empathy. By partnering with behavioural change experts like CABC, we’re proud to have created work that makes a real-world impact through ethical storytelling, emotional insight, and credible, science-backed messaging.