Draped in a white surgery gown, 7-year-old Hartley Bernier is rolled down a corridor at SickKids on a gurney.

Family and staff at the hospital line the walls in support, cheering and offering high-fives as he passes, like a sports team psyching up its star athlete.

They call out his name as he’s wheeled into an operating room. But there is no fear or anticipation today in the OR, where, with tubes and bandages covering the left side of his chest, Hartley raises his arms and flexes for the camera.

The scene is being filmed for a new advertising campaign from SickKids Foundation launching Saturday that showcases the bravery of its patients.

Three television ads and dozens of posters will be shown around Toronto in the new campaign, titled “VS,” pitting the hospital against its various opponents: liver failure, cystic fibrosis, cancer and heart disease to name a few.

Although Hartley, whose nickname is “Hart,” isn’t actually going into surgery, the moment feels very real for the young patient and his parents, Ashley and Daniel. Hartley has intestinal failure and spent the first 100 days of his life in the hospital.

The director asks him to mimic cardiac arrest, the 7-year-old pulsing to the fake shock of a defibrillator, laughing it off after each take.

“As parents, there were a few moments where we caught each other’s eye,” Daniel said.

Ashley called the moment “a bit heavy.”

“But the thing that kept the room light and cheery was that Hartley was having such a good time,” she said. Hartley has always wanted to be on TV like his favourite superhero Wolverine.

The scene will be the emotional climax of the lead ad in the new VS campaign. It’s a bold shift in marketing at the hospital, one that — instead of tugging on heartstrings with sad stories and sentimental music to inspire donors, as past campaigns have done — aims to display the fierceness of the patients and staff, to triumphantly say “sick is not weak.”

“The evolution is to a lot of empowerment. This notion that we are winning, but we won’t stop fighting until every kid is a healthy kid,” said Lori Davison, vice-president of brand strategy and communications.

One horse, one tiger, two therapeutic clowns and close to 300 people were involved in the production of three television spots that amassed 40 hours of footage and will begin airing this fall.

The first ad, titled “Anthem,” hits screens during the Toronto Maple Leafs home opener on Saturday, featuring historical Fort York soldiers marching down hospital halls with a teenage cancer patient, knights hand in hand escorting another to surgery, and a sequence filmed at Brampton’s Powerade Centre with patients and family members, including Hartley’s healthy younger brother Hudson, charging in chorus with an army across a battlefield to the tune of rap song “Undeniable” by Donnie Daydream.

Past campaigns have used sentimental organ-backed ballads like Coldplay’s “Fix You.”

For Dr. Rulan Parekh, the associate chief of clinical research, “winning” has always been a part of working at the hospital.

“We definitely see the heart-wrenching moments, but we also see some really great moments where we’re successful and we get it done,” Parekh said.

At SickKids, more than 80 per cent of patients with cancer survive, about 98.5 per cent of heart surgeries are successful, and the mortality rate from liver failure for intestinal diseases like Hartley’s has dropped to less than 1 per cent, from 22 per cent in 2000.

Although the new message is one of strength over sadness, the VS campaign will probably still be a tear-jerker for many viewers, said marketing professor Alan Middleton of York University’s Schulich School of Business.

“It doesn’t take away from the base appeal,” he said, which is that of children in need. The “we’re winning” strategy is another way of showing donors where their money is going, by showing the empowered faces of the children and teens at SickKids.

The faces of patients and staff showing off their fiercest grins and sassiest attitudes will also be displayed on posters across the city.

There’s 6-year-old Peyton Calder giving the camera a “What you want?” grin. In February, Peyton was diagnosed with myocarditis, an enlarged heart, and underwent a transplant in May.

The VS campaign is inspired by the strength of patients like Peyton, whose bicycle ride through the hospital while wearing a ventricular assist device called a Berlin Heart is a kind of legend among some nurses.

A then-5-year-old Peyton, on a pink Monster High bike and wearing a blue Captain America helmet (and her Berlin Heart), cruised down the halls from the basement up to the second floor. “The nurses were just sweating down the hallway,” said mom Tanya Jones. “Nobody could believe it.”

The campaign also features:

7-year-old Marlow Ploughman, with Stage 4 cancer, wearing a Batgirl costume, hands on hips.

6-year-old Malaki Ker-Went, with leukemia, growling like a tiger.

4-year-old Jadon Parent, with a congenital heart defect, arms crossed, sunglasses on.

15-year-old Marcus Augusto, a hockey player with bone cancer, eyeing the camera, chin up.

8-year-old Grace Turnbull, with brittle bone disease, standing tall in leg braces and clutching her teddy bear.

Hartley’s parents have found that a brave face can often be a challenging necessity.

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At their Newmarket home, Ashley, a social worker, and Daniel, a teacher, raise Hartley and his two younger brothers, Hudson, 5, and Sully, 1.

Ashley and Daniel have been Hartley’s full-time nurses since he was able to come home 100 days after he was born. They provide him with 16 hours of IV medication and painful injections to thin his blood daily.

“He is a little fighter,” said Daniel. “Everybody’s got to be brave together. That collective energy has a lot of power.”

Catching each other’s eye during the filming of the VS ad in August, as Hartley giggled through the mock shock of a defibrillator, the Berniers keep a brave face.

Being strong is easy when Hartley, smirking and flexing for the cameras, looks like a little superhero.

Strike a pose

The children, teens and staff of SickKids hospital are ready for a fight. With arms crossed, draped in “bravery beads” (the brightly coloured charms given out for each medical procedure they undergo), they strike a pose for the VS campaign. Each participant was asked to bring some of their favourite things, from tiaras and scooters to suits of armour and superhero costumes.

PEYTON

Six-year-old Peyton Calder, who had a heart transplant in May, brought a tiara to the photoshoot with her bravery beads. Although the tiara didn’t make the final cut, her personality is the star of this shot. “Peyton is my little diva,” says mom Tanya Jones.

JADON

Four-year-old Jadon Parent, who was adopted from Vietnam in late 2014 with a congenital heart defect, had the photography crew and onlookers in stitches at his photoshoot, putting on his toughest face in ripped jeans, sunglasses and a beret. “He can really ham it up when he wants to,” jokes mom Sara.

GRACE

Eight-year-old Grace Turnbull wore a “fragile but feisty” T-shirt to her photoshoot. Grace was in a full-body cast when her adoptive parents, Liz and David Turnbull, picked her up in China in 2010 with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. “She fractures a femur and won’t even cry,” says mom Liz. “That kid is my hero.”

MALAKI

Six-year-old Malaki Ker-Went brandished his silver shield and did his best “tiger face” at her photoshoot, as one of his dads, Doug Kerr, encouraged him from behind the cameras. “One day, I want to be a real knight,” he exclaimed afterwards.

MARLOW

Seven-year-old Marlow Ploughman, who sports a Batgirl costume for her photoshoot, commutes with her parents for her cancer treatments from Shannonville, Ont., about 200 kilometres east of Toronto. “Most adults couldn’t go through what she has been through,” says her mom Tanya Boehm, who describes Marlow’s personality as unbreakable. “She has a smile through most of it.”

MARCUS

In his white Air Jordans and ball cap, 15-year-old bone cancer patient Marcus Augusto put on a “devilishly handsome” smirk, as one photo crew member called it. Marcus is a hockey player and looks forward to one day playing sledge hockey in the Paralympic Games. Watching Canada’s Paralympic athletes has changed his outlook on playing sports in the future. “It’s really inspiring,” he says.

DR. PAREKH

A kidney specialist and associate chief of research, Dr. Rulan Parekh was inspired by the VS campaign as a showcase of diversity within the hospital among patients and staff. “I want people in Toronto to see the reflection of who everybody is,” says Parekh, who is of South Asian and Indian descent.