Following a launch at Davos in January, a mass media global campaign around the Super Bowl, and a Health Grand Prix for Good win this week at the Cannes Lions, Working with Cancer is adding to its momentum with the opening of a brief to the industry at large to help do away with the stigma of cancer in the workplace.
Entitled “The Big C,” the Working with Cancer brief will be rolled out at Cannes Lions on Thursday morning (6/22) in the Lumiere theatre, Palais I. Entrants will be briefed to create a culture-defying campaign for everyone living and working with cancer.
Originated by Publicis Groupe, the Working with Cancer initiative has become a cross-industry coalition. Coming together with Publicis to invite creatives to join the briefing are Edelman, IPG, Omnicom and WPP. Participants will compete with the best creative minds of the industry for the opportunity to create a campaign that will run on World Cancer Day 2024, in a global multi-media campaign supported by $100 million.
Cannes Lions will facilitate the judging process, using its world class systems, with a jury made up of senior creative and strategy leads across the five holding companies that are supporting the initiative. The team of jurors will include: Susan Credle (global chair & global chief creative officer, FCB), Chaka Sobhani (global CCO of Leo Burnett), Luiz Sanches (CCO of BBDO North America), Judy John (global CCO of Edelman) and Debbi Vandeven (global CCO of VMLY&R) .
Participants will be able to enter starting Monday, July 10, with a submission deadline of Friday, September 15. Judging will take place throughout October, with the winner announced at the end of that month.
Working with Cancer is an alliance of major international companies, with over 600 pledging businesses impacting up to 20 million employees, united by the aim to create an open, supportive and recovery-forward culture for cancer sufferers. The program continues to be powered by partnerships with key cancer research bodies and influencers, including Dani Trops, The Stroups, CancerChic and Laurie MacCatskill.
“Lions is a proud supporter of the Working with Cancer pledge and happy to lend our world-class judging process to a competition that provides an exciting opportunity for the industry to unite and work towards removing the stigma of cancer in the workplace,” said Lions CEO Simon Cook.
Carla Serrano, global chief strategy officer of Publicis Groupe, stated, “Since launching Working with Cancer at the start of this year, we have had an overwhelming response from our peers and clients. The program has evolved into a true cross industry coalition and today, alongside Edelman, IPG, Omnicom and WPP, we invite the industry to step up to arguably one of the most worthwhile and high-profile creative challenges they will ever work on. In raising awareness for Working with Cancer and encouraging more pledging companies, we will redefine cancer in the workplace and enable recovery forward environments worldwide.”
Working with Cancer juror Sanches of BBDO shared, “On behalf of Omnicom, we are thrilled to support such an important and critical initiative alongside our industry partners. No one chooses cancer, cancer chooses you, and the workplace must be a safe and supportive environment. There is no better place than Cannes Lions to continue to drive the mission of Working with Cancer, and I look forward to seeing the incredible work we are able to do for this special organization.”
Juror Credle of FCB added, “Advertising is a highly competitive industry. We all like to win. This initiative calls us all together to beat the stigma of cancer in the workplace. This is going to be a collective win for everyone.”
