“Advertising as Advocacy” presented by 21GRAMS & NEW YORK FESTIVALS
What happens when the people making oncology advertising have also lived it?
In April 2026, 21GRAMS, part of Real Chemistry, invited Anna and Jordan Rathkopf to join fellow panelists for Advertising as Advocacy: The Oncology Edition, a panel series with New York Festivals.
As founders of RATHKOPF, a patient- and caregiver-led strategy and storytelling studio, they shared how they help healthcare teams build with communities from the start—bringing lived experience into strategy and creative development to create work people recognize, trust, and respond to.
Better healthcare communication is not primarily a creative problem. It is a relationship problem.
That shift — from creating communications for patients to creating them with patients — was the deepest pattern throughout the conversation.
“The new thing is to uncover what wasn't said.”
“You get people because you are open. You listen to them. You invite them to every stage of your production.”
— Anna Rathkopf, RATHKOPF
Key Quotes
“Cancer patients are not a monolith, right?”
“You can't just say like this is a breast cancer insight. I think we really have to go deeper and think about subtypes, what drives each part of the disease, and you'll actually uncover even more interesting and diverse things about those people.”
— Kristen Farina, 21GRAMS
“Authenticity and lived experience doesn't always need to be a talking head video.”
“There are other ways to connect with audiences, but it means really truly understanding them at a deeper level, right?”
— Melanie Shapiro, 21GRAMS
“Pharma does have to abide by regulations of FDA. But what can we be doing better?”
“Because it’s not sneakers here. This is medicine, right? “
— Paul Barchitta, Ferring Pharmaceuticals
“Authenticity for me, it's collaboration”
“It's listening and not bringing your ego to the table and not trying to project what you want this to be about.”
— Jordan Rathkopf, RATHKOPF ·
RATHKOPF helps healthcare teams bring patients and caregivers in before the direction is fixed—and keep them involved through strategy, creative development, and storytelling.