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| New Zealand ad campaign to make country ‘best place in the world to have herpes’ wins top prize at Cannes Lions | New Zealand ad campaign to make country ‘best place in the world to have herpes’ wins top prize at Cannes Lions |
| (2 days later) | |
| Retro-style tourism video fronted by a former All Blacks coach won the Cannes Lions grand prix for good award | Retro-style tourism video fronted by a former All Blacks coach won the Cannes Lions grand prix for good award |
| A public health advertisement that campaigned to make New Zealand “the best place in the world to have herpes” has won a top prize at the Cannes Lions – one of world’s most prestigious advertising awards. | A public health advertisement that campaigned to make New Zealand “the best place in the world to have herpes” has won a top prize at the Cannes Lions – one of world’s most prestigious advertising awards. |
| The campaign, launched by the New Zealand Herpes Foundation in October last year, attempts to challenge decades of entrenched stigma around genital herpes – a condition that affects up to 80% of New Zealanders at some point in their lives, the foundation said. | The campaign, launched by the New Zealand Herpes Foundation in October last year, attempts to challenge decades of entrenched stigma around genital herpes – a condition that affects up to 80% of New Zealanders at some point in their lives, the foundation said. |
| The cheeky take on a retro-style tourism video features former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry lamenting the loss of New Zealand’s clout on the international stage – the sheep to human ratio is “embarrassingly low”, pies are “pushing seven bucks” and the country’s pride is “less than outstanding”, he opines. | The cheeky take on a retro-style tourism video features former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry lamenting the loss of New Zealand’s clout on the international stage – the sheep to human ratio is “embarrassingly low”, pies are “pushing seven bucks” and the country’s pride is “less than outstanding”, he opines. |
| “We need something new to be proud of, something big and brave to put us back on the map – it’s time for New Zealand to become the best place in the world to have herpes,” Henry says. | “We need something new to be proud of, something big and brave to put us back on the map – it’s time for New Zealand to become the best place in the world to have herpes,” Henry says. |
| The promotional video is followed by a “Herpes Destigmatisation Course”, fronted by prominent New Zealanders such as former director-general of health Sir Ashley Bloomfield, former All Black Sir Buck Shelford and boxer Mea Motu. | The promotional video is followed by a “Herpes Destigmatisation Course”, fronted by prominent New Zealanders such as former director-general of health Sir Ashley Bloomfield, former All Black Sir Buck Shelford and boxer Mea Motu. |
| The campaign – developed alongside Auckland-based agency Motion Sickness and Sydney agency FINCH – was awarded the Lions health and UN foundation grand prix for good, for “unabashedly [using] humour to tackle a challenging subject and stigmatisation”. | The campaign – developed alongside Auckland-based agency Motion Sickness and Sydney agency FINCH – was awarded the Lions health and UN foundation grand prix for good, for “unabashedly [using] humour to tackle a challenging subject and stigmatisation”. |
| “Our 2025 awardee took a taboo topic and turned it on its head – showing that with a great strategy, a big, bold crazy idea, and humour for days, that anything is possible,” said David Ohana, Cannes Lions jury president. | “Our 2025 awardee took a taboo topic and turned it on its head – showing that with a great strategy, a big, bold crazy idea, and humour for days, that anything is possible,” said David Ohana, Cannes Lions jury president. |
| Claire Hurst, one of the foundation’s founding trustees, told the Guardian herpes is mostly medically insignificant but that “a lifetime of societal conditioning” around the word “herpes” makes coping with a diagnosis difficult for many. | |
| Never in her 30 years of doing this work has a campaign to destigmatise the infection had such cut-through, Hurst said. | Never in her 30 years of doing this work has a campaign to destigmatise the infection had such cut-through, Hurst said. |
| “As soon as you just put it out there, and people can just say ‘you see, it’s cold sores’ and ‘yeah, a lot of us have them and most of us don’t know’, then it stops being the big bogey man.” | “As soon as you just put it out there, and people can just say ‘you see, it’s cold sores’ and ‘yeah, a lot of us have them and most of us don’t know’, then it stops being the big bogey man.” |