Assignment: Create a patient focused campaign to help men living with prostate cancer understand the importance of speaking up about any symptoms of progression they may be experiencing.

Strategic Problem: Older men grew up in a different era. One where real men didn’t complain. If something was bothering them they kept it to themselves and stayed silent. Nearly 7 out of 10 men with prostate cancer ignore the signs of its progression. They simply don’t think it’s a man’s place to talk about what’s bothering them—it’s not how they were raised. For a man living with prostate cancer, this silence can be deadly.

Creative Solution: We created a campaign designed to directly challenge that mindset, to tell men that the days of keeping silent about their condition were a relic of the past. Building off the motif of the silent era of cinema, we used black & white imagery, 1920’s style wardrobe and props, and silent film cards. The images were shot in color, with actors painted in black & white make-up. No CGI was used in the creation of these images and the retouching was very minimal—we achieved “the Silent Era” in camera.

Winner: 2016 Cannes Lions Health Pharma for Unbranded Campaign (Shortlist); 2016 Global Awards Best Multichannel Campaign (Silver), Consumer Print Campaign (Finalist)