Burjuman "Open your eyes"

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility Plan, BurJuman - one of Dubai’s most premium shopping malls annually hosts a breast cancer awareness week, with a special in-mall clinic for on the spot check-ups. Breast Cancer particularly amongst the local Arab women is a taboo subject. It is these women that need to be reminded that early detection can result in cure and ignorance can have serious consequences. Their challenge was to create advertising to remind women who walked by, to come for a free in-mall check-up or get a leaflet to self-examine in the privacy of their homes. The creative idea – ‘open your eyes’ was literally demonstrated. They had limited media spend, so they identified just the medium that would provide them with the reach they needed to ensure the message got through – shop windows. For the entire week, they blindfolded every mannequin in every store window within the mall with a pink blindfold reading ‘Open your eyes to breast cancer’. They replaced the window price card with a message that directed women to the clinic or to self-examine. To ensure that local women registered the message, the communication was created in both English and Arabic. This was the first time something of this sort was done for breast cancer awareness in the region. The communication exceeded expectations - over 1,500 women came in for a free check-up in the entire week. 10,000 self-check leaflets were picked up by women across nationalities and age groups. The communication also served another long term purpose – to continue to remind women to spare a few minutes for self examination every month.

Agency: Wunderman ME, United Arab Emirates.