McCann Worldgroup Wins PR Cannes Lions Grand Prix for 'The Bread Exam'

The campaign sought to help tackle cultural taboos relating to intimate parts of the body and taught women how to perform self-checks and detect early signs of breast cancer.

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McCann Worldgroup

Jun 22, 2021, 11:55 ET

LONDON, June 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- McCann Worldgroup has been awarded a Grand Prix in the PR Lions category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for 'The Bread Exam', a campaign teaching women to perform self-checks and detect early signs of breast cancer.

McCann Worldgroup Wins PR Cannes Lions Grand Prix for ‘The Bread Exam’

The campaign was developed to help tackle cultural taboos, which can prevent early breast cancer detection in women living in traditional communities in the Middle East. The idea is centred around a video which demonstrates the steps of a breast self-exam disguised as a dough kneading tutorial created by well-known Chef Um Ali. The video did not mention or show breasts, respecting cultural values around modesty.

The campaign – created by McCann Paris in collaboration with FP7 McCann, Weber Shandwick and McCann Health – originally launched in Lebanon supported by a trio of clients: Spinneys Supermarkets, American University of Beirut Medical Centre and the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation.

Subsequently for World Cancer Day, famous food influencers from Turkey, UK and Germany – countries with large Middle Eastern communities – joined forces with local NGOs to create their own versions of "The Bread Exam".

The campaign case study can be viewed in full here.

McCann Health London; Weber Shandwick Paris; FP7 McCann Dubai; Weber Shandwick London; McCann Worldgroup Germany and Weber Shandwick Turkey all collaborated to develop and implement this campaign – which also attained multiple Gold and Silver Lions in HEALTH & WELLNESS, PR and MEDIA categories.

"With this campaign, we wanted to circumvent a cultural taboo and compensate for the lack of support from current institutions. Even more so during these present challenging times, providing a way for women to perform a self-examination, which is crucial in fighting breast cancer. An idea worth undoubtedly fighting for!" said Cedric Astrella & Sebastien Boutebel, ECDs, McCann Paris.

"This campaign is a perfect example of resilience and collaboration. First because it was years in the making and kudos to the Paris team for hanging on and preserving the integrity of the idea. Secondly, this wouldn't have happened without the joint effort of our Paris and Dubai offices, and last but not least, this idea wouldn't have infiltrated culture without the contribution of our partners in Weber Shandwick and McCann Health across five markets in two different regions,"added Adrian Botan, CCO Europe, Global ECD.

This is the 4th Grand Prix won by McCann Worldgroup, Europe and UK in 4 consecutive Cannes Lions editions: MRM Spain won the Entertainment Grand Prix with Santander Bank in 2017, McCann London won the Creative ecommerce Grand Prix with Xbox in 2018 and McCann Tel Aviv won the Health Grand Prix with Ikea in 2019.

ABOUT McCANN WORLDGROUP
McCann Worldgroup, part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), is a creatively driven global marketing company whose professionals are united across 100+ countries by a single mission: To help brands earn a meaningful role in people's lives. McCann Worldgroup was named "Global Agency of The Year" by Adweek magazine, "Network of the Year" by the Cannes Lions, the world's most creatively-effective marketing services company by the Effie Awards (for three consecutive years), "Global Network of the Year" by Campaign Magazine and "Network of The Year" by The Webby Awards two years in a row. The network comprises McCann (advertising), MRM (science/technology/relationship marketing), Momentum Worldwide (total brand experience), McCann Health (professional/dtc communications), CRAFT (production), Weber Shandwick (public relations) and FutureBrand (consulting/design).

SOURCE McCann Worldgroup