Roche Anti-Stress Balls
Breast cancer is the cancer with the highest incidence in Portugal. One in eleven Portuguese women suffers from this disease. Pharmaceutical company Roche worked with McCann Erickson Portugal to raise womens awareness about the importance of self examination. The agency created an anti-stress ball with a deformed stone inside, simulating a tumour. After squeezing the ball, the women felt a strange object that raised their curiosity. The phrase written on the ball, “You don’t see breast cancer, you feel it. Do the self exam.”
60,000 balls were given out to women on the street, at work, hospitals and at theme-related events, along with flyers explaining the correct way to conduct a self examination. Records showed that mammography examinations increased during this time.
The Anti-Stress Balls campaign was developed at McCann Lisbon by creative directors José Bomtempo and Diogo Anahory, copywriter Emerson Braga, art directors André Lopes and Rita Andrade, account manager Sónia Correia.