Image above: Lilly ad
"Hands"
Today is World Cancer Day, so make an appointment to get screened!
With that goal in mind, Eli Lilly, Publicis Group, and the Ad Council/American Lung Association, have launched separate awareness campaigns.
‘Hands’
A woman’s hands star in a :60 spot from Lilly which debuted during the Grammy Awards Sunday night. The hands are shown playing a key role in the woman’s daily activities like sculpting, gardening, and playing with her children – until she apparently discovers a lump in her breast while showering. That brings her to a doctor’s office as graphics relate, “The most powerful way to fight cancer is in your hands. Most cancers are curable when caught early.”
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Chief Corporate Brand Officer Lina Polimeni tells Marketing Daily that the Grammys were chosen for the campaign’s launch because the telecast “allows us to reach a broad, diverse audience to raise awareness for the importance of early cancer detection and our commitment to health equity.”
While the “Hands” ad contains no website URL or other direct to call-to-action, Polimeni hopes the spot “encourages discussions with doctors about mammogram guidelines…We believe it is important to focus on the human experience of patients.”
Created with Wieden+Kennedy , the film ends with the graphic, “Lilly. A Medicine Company,” which has become the de facto signoff in Lilly’s ongoing brand image campaign.
Polimeni says Lilly will soon reveal where “Hands” will run next and also “how we are increasing access to screenings, specifically mammograms.”
“This campaign,” she states, “is a continued effort to show who we are -- a medicine company that puts health above all -- since many people may not know us beyond our individual medicines.”
Those individual medicines for cancer include breast cancer treatment Verzenio.
In addition to the TV spot, “Hands” has been cut down into :30 and :15 versions for use on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Lilly, Polimeni stresses, is “encouraging women that using their own hands to determine abnormalities in their breasts…can put them in control of detecting the disease early.”
‘Screening Time Off’
One screening success story comes from actress Jenna Fischer. She got a mammogram, found out she had breast cancer, and as a result is now cancer-free.
Fischer stars in a :60 film for Publicis Groupe’s new “Screening Time Off” campaign, which urges companies to encourage employees to take time off for that purpose.
“Take it from Pam and her pam-pams,” she says in the spot, referencing a crude joke regarding the character she played for nine seasons on “The Office.” “Get ‘em checked, ladies.”
“Screening Time Off” -- backed by such pharma firms as Merck, Pfizer and Sanofi, as well as L’Oreal and Nestle – is being supported by $20 million in donated media as well as a Times Square “takeover” today, Publicis says.
‘Saved By The Scan’
“By inspiring people to talk with their doctor about lung cancer screenings, we can offer hope for early detection, effective treatment and ultimately save lives,” notes Heidi Arthur, the Ad Council’s chief campaign development officer.
Today, the Ad Council and the American Lung Association (ALA) launched new PSAs for “Saved By The Scan,” their eight-year-old campaign encouraging smokers and former smokers to get lung cancer screenings.
“If your lungs could talk, what would they say?" ask the new ads from Hill Holliday that come in TV, print, radio, out-of-home, digital banner and social media iterations.
In one :30 spot, a former smoker is climbing a long flight of stairs when she’s interrupted by her unimpressed lungs appearing in personified form. “We are proud of you for quitting smoking,” the lungs say, “but you still may be at risk for lung cancer.”
Since 2021, discussions about scanning between those eligible for screenings and their doctors have increased from 27% to 43%, while the number of those who spoke to their doctors and then got scanned rose from 21% to 35%.
This in turn has “played a critical role in a 44% increase in the lung cancer survival rate over the past decade”, per a statement from American Lung Association President-CEO Harold Wimmer.
Still, according to the ALA, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., with only 16% of people at high risk getting screened.