Publicis takes Working with Cancer pledge to the Super Bowl

Publicis is taking its Working with Cancer initiative to the biggest stage in the U.S.: The Super Bowl. 

The holding company said on Tuesday that it will use the Super Bowl to build on the momentum of the global pledge it launched to galvanize the business world to better support and de-stigmatize employees working with cancer. 

The Wording With Cancer pledge, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, is meant to draw awareness to the fact that 50% of all people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and aims to develop tangible commitments from employers to be more supportive of those working with the disease. So far, more than 30 global corporations have signed the pledge, including Walmart, PepsiCo, Verizon, L’Oréal, Adobe and Omnicom. 

The initiative is supported by a multimillion-dollar donated media campaign kicking off in time for World Cancer Day on February 4, which includes a billboard in Times Square and a guaranteed reach of 1 billion people from Meta.

The Super Bowl spot, called Monday, comes in addition to the pro bono media push. It will air regionally in the New York area during the game, where Publicis is partnering closely with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Publicis bought the Super Bowl spot, but declined to disclose how much it paid. 

The holding company felt that although the pledge is for businesses, the campaign needed a consumer-facing element to serve as a “wake-up call” for people to support their colleagues with cancer.

“Social change in workplaces often takes years and comes in dribbles and drabbles,” said Carla Serrano, chief strategy officer at Publicis Groupe. “We can create the programs and put the systems together, but if we don’t rally and galvanize people and wake them up to the fact that cancer is absolutely pervasive and part of culture, we [can’t] affect workplace culture. What better place than the Super Bowl to launch that idea?”

Directed by Elena Petitti di Roreto and Martin de Thurah, Monday follows two people as they prepare for their return to work. The two-minute film cuts between scenes of each receiving treatment and suffering from side effects, juxtaposed against scenes of them returning to work. The film is set to a crescendoing piano melody that builds intensity as each journey progresses.

It ends with each worker being embraced and supported by their bosses and coworkers as they transition back to work, with the tagline: “Half of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime. All of us should give support at work.” 

“The goal is to give an emotional glimpse of what people who have cancer go through,” said Marco Venturelli, chief creative officer of Publicis France, who led creative on the campaign. “Sometimes they are physical or mental. Often they are both. One thing we realized is just making it a bit more normal is so important.”  

Venturelli added that the project was especially impactful in that numerous crew members were impacted by cancer as well. In fact, one of the main actors in the film is a cancer survivor whose career was impacted by his illness. 

“It’s eye-opening to see how many people have this [impacting] their life,” Venturelli said.

Inside the pledge

Publicis Groupe launched the Working with Cancer pledge based on the experience of CEO Arthur Sadoun, who was diagnosed with and treated for HPV-related cancer last year. Instead of hiding his condition, he made the unusually vulnerable decision as the leader of a public company to go public in a video that resonated across the business community.