Roche "Anti-Stress Balls"

Breast cancer is the cancer with the highest incidence in Portugal. About 4,500 new cases are detected annually. And the death rate is one of the highest in Europe. Their challenge was to create a simple low-cost action to raise women's awareness about the importance of self-exams and thus help them detect breast nodules or lumps. Simple and revealing, just like the self-exam. The agency created an anti-stress ball with a defomed stone inside, simulating a tumour. On squeezing the ball, the women feels a foreign object wich raises her curiosity. "You don't see breast cancer. You feel it. Do the self-exam". 50,000 balls and a flyer - explaining the correct way of doing the self-exame were produced and distributed to women on the street, at companies, hospitals and at theme-related events. During the action period, records showed a 22% increase in mammography exams and a 28% rise inhospital consultations.

Agency: McCann Erickson Lisbon, Portugal.