Edelman, IPG, Omnicom, and WPP Join Publicis for Working with Cancer’s Next Action

Cannes Lions will facilitate a creative competition supported by major holding companies inviting all creatives to take a $100m brief and have the opportunity to impact billions of lives

Working with Cancer initiative recognized with the Lions Health Grand Prix for Good in Cannes

CANNES – June 21, 2023: Following a launch at Davos and a mass media global campaign around the Super Bowl, Working with Cancer is entering its third landmark moment of the year. At this year’s Cannes Lions, Working with Cancer will be opening up a brief to the whole industry to help erase the stigma of Cancer in the workplace.

As a true cross-industry coalition, Edelman, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP will come together to invite creatives to join the briefing for this pioneering workplace movement. Participants will compete with the best creative minds of the industry for the opportunity to create a campaign that will run on World Cancer Day 2024, in a global multi-media campaign supported by $100m.

The Working with Cancer brief – entitled ‘The Big C’ – will be given on Thursday June 22, at 10am CET in the Lumiere theatre, Palais I. Entrants will be briefed to create a culture-defying campaign for everyone living and working with cancer.

Cannes Lions will facilitate the judging process, using their world class systems, with a jury made up of senior creative and strategy leads 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).

Participants 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.

Working with Cancer aims to completely erase the stigma and insecurity of cancer at work. Today, the program initially launched by Publicis Groupe is an alliance of major international companies, with over 600 pledging businesses impacting up to 20 million employees, united by the aim to create an open, supportive and recovery-forward culture for cancer sufferers. The program continues to be powered by partnerships with key cancer research bodies and influencers, including Dani Trops, The Stroups, CancerChic and Laurie MacCatskill.

This week, Cannes Lions has already recognized Working with Cancer with the Lions Health
Grand Prix for Good, which celebrates the powerful use of creativity to positively impact not only business and brand, but also the world at large.

“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.” – Simon Cook, CEO at LIONS.

“Since launching Working with Cancer at the start of this year, we have had an overwhelming response from our peers and clients. The program has evolved into a true cross industry coalition and today, alongside Edelman, IPG, Omnicom and WPP, we invite the industry to step up to arguably one of the most worthwhile and high-profile creative challenges they will ever work on. 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.” – Carla Serrano, Global CSO of Publicis Groupe.

“On behalf of Omnicom, we are thrilled to support such an important and critical initiative
alongside our industry partners. No one chooses cancer, cancer chooses you, and the workplace must be a safe and supportive environment. There is no better place than Cannes Lions to continue to drive the mission of Working with Cancer, and I look forward to seeing the incredible work we are able to do for this special organization.” – Luiz Sanches, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO North America.

“Advertising is a highly competitive industry. We all like to win. This initiative calls us all together to beat the stigma of cancer in the workplace. This is going to be a collective win for everyone.” – Susan Credle, Global Chair & Global Chief Creative Officer, FCB.

Working with Cancer hosts quarterly Founding partners meetings to review actions taken across organizations related to the pledge. You can become a pledging company for Working with Cancer and encourage others to show their support here.