Edelman, IPG, Omnicom and WPP join Publicis for Working with Cancer's next action

Working with Cancer will be opening up a brief to the whole industry at Cannes Lions 2023 to help erase the stigma of Cancer in the workplace.

As part of a cross-industry coalition, Edelman, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP will come together to invite creatives to join the briefing for this 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 $100 million. 

The Working with Cancer brief - entitled ‘The Big C’ - will be given on Thursday June 22, at 10 am 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, 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 and 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 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 recognised 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,” said 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,” said 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 organisation,” said 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,” said Susan Credle, Global Chair and Global Chief Creative Officer, FCB. 

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