A day after winning the Health Grand Prix For Good at the Cannes Ad Festival, “Working with Cancer” has announced plans for a competitive pitch for its 2024 global ad campaign, which, like this year’s campaign, is backed by $100 million in media support.  

The new brief, entitled "The Big C," will be given this Thursday morning in the Lumiere theatre, at the Palais in Cannes and is supported by a cross-industry coalition. Next year’s campaign will kick off on World Cancer Day 2024.  

A coalition including Edelman, Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP are participating in Thursday’s launch effort.  

Cannes Lions will facilitate the judging process with a jury made up of senior creatives 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 NA), Judy John (Global CCO of Edelman) and Debbi Vandeven (Global CCO of VMLY&R). 
 
Those vying for the brief 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.  

The goal of the Working with Cancer organization, unveiled in January by the Publicis Foundation, is to erase the stigma and insecurity of cancer at work. Over 600 companies (with a combined 20 million workers) have pledged to positively support their employees dealing with cancer.  

The program has 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.  

“We invite the industry to step up to arguably one of the most worthwhile and high-profile creative challenges they will ever work on,” said Carla Serrano, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis Groupe. “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.”  

More about the organization can be viewed here.