SPINNEYS THE LEBANESE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION | THE BREAD EXAM | 2020
Baking bread can save a life / SPINNEYS "THE BREAD EXAM"
The motion of kneading bread dough and the motion of a breast self-exam. They turned out to be nearly identical. That one observation was enough to break through a cultural taboo.
The problem
Breast cancer can be cured in more than nine out of ten cases if caught early. And yet in Lebanon, there's a culture where people can't even say the word "breast" out loud, so only one in ten women ever did a self-exam.
The insight
You can't tear down a taboo head-on. So instead, work with tradition. The team at McCann Paris zeroed in on one of the world's oldest customs: baking bread. The motions of pressing and kneading dough turned out to be almost exactly the same as the steps of a breast self-exam.
The idea
They made a video called "The Bread Exam," in which a popular local baker demonstrates the self-exam steps disguised as a bread recipe. The word "breast" is never said, and nothing is ever shown. The hashtag #Khabazte ("Did you bake bread?") became a kind of secret password among women.
What happened
The recipe was printed on Spinneys flour packaging, and demonstrations were held in stores. The idea spread so far that influencers in other countries made their own versions, and it won the Grand Prix in the PR category at Cannes Lions 2021.
Afterthought
Instead of breaking the taboo, go around it. Instead of making tradition the enemy, make it your ally. There's real power in an idea that hides a life-saving procedure inside something as simple as baking bread.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2020
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