VMLY&R and product innovation win big with Cannes Pharma and Health Grand Prix

Much of the work the jury considered was about COVID, he said. “Because there was a bit of sea of sameness coming through, it’s quite hard to distinguish. I think this is why [“I Will Always Be Me”] actually rose to the top.”

Why it won

Patricia Corsi, jury president and chief marketing, digital and information officer of Bayer Consumer Health, said the product’s appeal comes in part because it plays on an existing habit—use of mosquito coils widely in Indian homes—to solve a major problem more thoroughly.

The jury and other contenders

A diverse jury came from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America, Corsi said, “which made for really great discussions in terms of the context and cultural view, which made a big difference in terms of choosing the winners.” It also helped foster a diverse group of winners from 16 countries, she said.

Looking forward

“We had very intense and animated discussions in our teams, because we had so many rare cases,” she said. But one thing Maxx Flash had going for it was that it can scale. “This is not only necessary in India, where this case comes from,” Corsi said. “This can really be expanded in many other regions. We believe, frankly, these ideas need to grow, and it’s going to save money.”

“Lil Sugar-Master of Disguise” came from Area 23, an IPG Health Network company in New York, for the group Hip-Hop Public Health. It’s a health awareness campaign designed to teach youth—and their parents —the many disguised forms that sugar can take on food labels, with the goal of reducing diabetes in the Black community by reducing consumption of sugar.

The Master of Disguise theme includes personifying the 150 obscure names used to identify sugar on ingredient labels, from corn syrup to maltodextrin. Hip-hop artists including Chuck D of Public Enemy, Doug E. Fresh and Daryl McDaniels of Run DMC created music videos about some of the disguised sugar characters, and an app uses gaming, letting kids point a smartphone camera at an ingredient label to show and digitally collect, as many characters as they can.