Moving beyond the poster

Earlier this year, the Polish Federation of Cancer Survivors (PFCS) teamed up with H&M to deliver one of the most innovative, but understated advertising campaigns we’ve seen in a while.

Polish women are far more likely to die from breast cancer than car accidents, largely due to late diagnosis. The campaign aimed to tackle this issue by encouraging women to think about, and sign up to regular mammogram scanning. Each time a woman bought a bra at H&M in Warsaw, the shop assistant would place a security tag in the bag, causing the customer to set off an alarm on their way out. The message ‘what a person can miss, a machine will find’ was printed on the tag, conveying the idea that mammograms can pick up hidden lumps, just like a shop security system.

Health-related messages often get overlooked in our fast-paced advertising environment. By veering away from multi-million pound poster campaigns and adopting an original medium to address their audience, PFCS’s message was able to really hit home. Following the action, the charity received 10% more breast cancer-related enquiries, and their website was visited by 1,650 unique visitors over two days.

The campaign went on to pick up a Bronze Lion at Cannes this year, as well as the Grand Prix in the New or Innovative category at the 2011 Golden Drum Awards. Proving that big budgets aren’t the key to big impacts. And that a little bit of imagination can take you a long way.