Pharma fame for Fallon’s ‘Tight End’
- Jun 23
- 2 min read
A message to men that there is an alternative to the traditional ‘finger test’ prostate exam has won this year’s Lions Pharma Grand Prix.
‘Relax Your Tight End’ from Fallon, Minneapolis was a campaign for Novartis to combat the fact that tens of millions of men avoid being tested for early prostate cancer because they are squeamish about the traditional method of examination. The campaign started at the Super Bowl with an array of famous American-football stars who’d played the tight-end position, showing them relaxing in a variety of settings.
The alternative test — a simple PSA blood test — was showcased in the campaign, which led to a 367% increase in Google searches and a near-tenfold increase in PSA tests being taken. “It could have won the award for the best film: it was delightful to watch. But what ultimately made this the Grand Prix winner was that they really had thought of everything,” said Jury President Tracey Brader, chief strategy and innovation officer at Omnicom Health.
“It was a real nose-to-tail piece of communication. It exploited PR, it had an appropriate use of celebrity, and it had the natural empathy that comes from recognising the patient that genuinely could have died if they had not had the screening performed early … and it was genuinely funny.” The campaign’s strong lean-in to humour was a wider trend in the Pharma entries this year, according to Brader. She also pointed to “a lot of very human work that drilled into what it really means to live with a healthcare condition” as having impressed the jury.
A gold Lion in the category was awarded to Ogilvy, Shanghai’s ‘Viagra, Blue Brands’ work for Viatris.
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