This year seems to be the year of India at Cannes Lions 2018. First the Lion of St. mark wen to the Pandey brothers from JWT India, and now TBWA\INDIA, Mumbai signs the work that received the Health Grand Prix for Good, Blink to speak language for the Asha E Hope non profit foundation.
The Healthcare Lion Grand Prix went to the USA thanks to ‘Corazón – Give Your Heart’ by JohnXHannes, New York, for Montefiore.
The Healthcare Agency of the Year was awarded to Havas Lynx; second to Area 23, an FCB Health Network Company; and third to Langland.
The Healthcare Network of the Year was bestowed to FCB Health, this is the first time the agency gets this award; second to Havas Health & You; and third to Publicis Health.
A true story of hope winns the Grand Prix
Corazón depicts the story of Elena Ramirez (de Armas), a young Dominican woman living in Santo Domingo who is selling her body to provide for her family only Elena’s body is failing her.
Elena has a bad heart and has been given months to live unless she gets a new heart. After fainting, Elena meets a U.S.-based cardiologist, Dr. Mario Garcia (Bichir), who is volunteering in his native hometown of Santo Domingo. Elena is past the point of help from conventional medicine, but Dr. Garcia gives her a fighting chance to live via a mechanical heart surgery that he and his colleagues can only perform at Montefiore in the Bronx. Elena sets out on a journey from Santo Domingo to New York City, facing challenges along the way, but always motivated by her conviction to live. A true story of chance, hope, courage, friendship, love and generosity.
“Meeting the real people behind this remarkable story and feeling the genuine compassion of the key doctors involved was so impactful,” said director John Hillcoat at the time the short was lauched. “They were in it for all the right reasons — fighting for human life itself.”
While embracing human compassion, Corazón is also a call to action. There are currently 115,000 patients in the U.S. who are waiting for a life-saving organ donation. But less than half will actually receive one. Twenty-two people die every day, because there simply aren’t enough organs. April is National Donate Life Month, and Montefiore Health System (in partnership with Donate Life) islaunched #GiveYourHeart, asking the people to become donors.
“We knew we had to find a way to capture the power at the heart of a true patient story. We went looking for partners with a reputation for exceptional storytelling and the vision to create something that would compel people to act. Our search led us first to Emmy Award®-winning agency JohnXHannes New York. Serial Pictures was then brought to the project, and we were ecstatic to have John Hillcoat onboard to direct this extraordinary story in a way that would leave a lasting impact with every audience,” said Loreen Babcock, Chief Marketing Officer of Montefiore.
An affordable solution for people suffering from paralysis, good for Stephen Hawking
Around 60 million patients around the world live under deseases that cause them some kind of paralysis. And the wide majority of them can’t afford the tech devices that would enable them communicating with other people.
Blink To Speak uses 50 simple eye movements to build an extensive eye language. They assigned simple messages commonly needed by patients to basic combinations of eye movements. They created very easy to use sets of eye actions using the 8 alphabets of the eye language – Shut, Blink, Left, Right, Up, Down, Roll and Wink.
Health Grand Prix for Good Jury President Rajesh Mirchandani, Chief Communications Officer, United Nations Foundation, said, “The award is designed to recognise creative achievements that promote the advance of social good and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To do this, we must come up with ideas that are scalable and reach the furthest left behind. We got chills when we saw ‘Blind to Speak’. We were impressed with its simplicity and its ability to inspire and empower.”
In Health, mobile is the trend
R. John Fidelino, Executive Creative Director, InterbrandHealth, said explaining the Grand Prix bestowed to ‘Corazón – Give Your Heart’ , “We looked for work that fused health and wellness issues into our everyday lives.” R. John Fidelino described the Grand Prix winner as an extremely strong integrated campaign that used various elements and mediums that came together successfully as a whole. ”
The Health & Wellness Lions Jury underscored the trends they noted across the winning work, including the innovative and effective use of mobile. The awarded work also showed that health and wellness doesn’t always have to be serious, emotional and meaningful, the ideas that came through were often cool, clever and funny.
In the Health & Wellness Lions 1,482 entries were received and 39 Lions were awarded: 8 Gold, 12 Silver and 18 Bronze.
No Grand in Pharma for the first time
From 376 entries received in the Pharma Lions 27 Lions were awarded: 3 Gold, 15 Silver and 9 Bronze, with no Grand Prix. For the first time, Argentina and Ireland both took Bronze Lions home.
Pharma Lions Jury President Rich Levy, Chief Creative Officer, FCB Health, noted that the shortlist included work from many of the world’s largest pharma companies, including: Pfizer, BI, Allergan, Novartis, Merck, Bayer, Biogen, Lilly, Grunenthal, Cochlear, AZ, TEVA, Takeda, Roche, GSK.
His jury looked for work that was both life-changing and highly creative. “We saw a diversity of ideas that we’d never seen before. There was not a single piece of work that stood out to win the Grand Prix, but many of the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will move the industry forward,” said Levy.
The Young Lions Health winners were also announced during the Awards Show. The Lion went to: Gerardo Saavedra, Felipa, Mexico and Emiliano Salmon, Felipa, Mexico.
Image over the headline.- Gowind Pandey (CEO TBWA\INDIA, Mumbai) is presented with the Health Lion Grand Prix for Good during the award gala at Cannes Lions 2018. Photo, © Cannes Lions.
Related external links:
Corazón Give your Heart trailer
Corazón / Entrevista a Ana de Armas / Red Carpet Tribeca 2018 (interview in Spanish)
