Top pharma honors at the Cannes’ creative ad confab went to Philips for a heartwarming film for its medical devices, and Big Pharmas Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novartis and Bayer each took home awards--while Teva Pharmaceutical Industries picked up two.
Created by Ogilvy & Mather, the Philips short film follows the journey of 18 people with respiratory problems who learn from an expert coach how to sing again and put on a concert at the Apollo Theater.
Philips’ devices are used without mention by the singers with conditions including cystic fibrosis, reduced lung capacity, asthma and COPD in the Cannes’ Grand Prix-winning entry.
“It’s a stunning example of cinematic storytelling in the medical devices industry and clearly breaks the mold,” said Pharma jury leader Alexandra von Plato, group president at Publicis Healthcare Communications, in a press release.
A record-breaking 2,605 entries were submitted for the Cannes Lions Health awards in its third year, with a total of 99 Lions awarded overall. In the Pharma category, 52 Lions were awarded from the 582 entries submitted, while in the Health & Wellness category, 47 Lions were awarded from the remaining 2023 entries.
Pfizer was one of four gold award winners with a print campaign for Xalatan eye drops to treat high eye pressure, created by McCann Health, Hong Kong. Teva Neurosciences also won gold for its Parkinson’s disease campaign “Parkinsounds”--created by Havas Life, Sao Paolo--that paired music therapy to patients’ gaits. The other two gold pharma winners were Aster Healthcare and the Indian Association of Palliative Care.
Silver-award winning pharma companies were Bayer, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Salix Pharmaceuticals and Teva again, with a campaign for DuoResp Spiromax.
The Grand Prix winner in the Health & Wellness category went to Pearson, a British educational publishing company, for a literacy campaign created by FCB’s Inferno, London.
- see all the Lions Health 2016 winning campaigns
- read the Cannes release
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Editor's Note: This story was updated to state that the Philips concert took place at the Apollo Theater, rather than Carnegie Hall.