When Publicis Groupe Chairman-CEO Arthur Sadoun revealed he had cancer in April 2022, he received an abundance of messages wishing him well or offering support. But he also received an alarming number of testimonials from people in the industry who had been touched by cancer and feared not just for their or their loved ones’ lives, but for their jobs.

One person spoke of taking vacation days to get surgery for breast cancer. Another told of having prostate cancer and doing radiation treatments in the mornings to keep it from co-workers. And another avoided telling colleagues about their child’s cancer diagnosis so as to not appear weak to company superiors. 

“We realized that what we were fighting here was not a reality, but a perception; the perception that when you get sick, you move from being strong to being weak,” Sadoun said. “It split the world into the people that are in good health and the ones that are not. And when you are not, you easily lose confidence, sometimes so much confidence that you are afraid to be fired.” 

Sadoun had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his neck and underwent preventative radiation and chemotherapy, but worked through his treatment and told the world about his diagnosis. Realizing that not everyone feels empowered to do the same, Sadoun decided to take action.

The result is Working With Cancer, a global cross-industry coalition to end the stigma of cancer in the workplace.

Supported by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Macmillan Cancer Research and the Gustave Roussy Institute, the initiative challenges companies around the globe to pledge to build open, supportive and recovery-forward work cultures for their employees. Sadoun is launching the pledge this week at Davos in partnership with the World Economic Forum, inviting some of the world’s most influential companies to join and outline their own commitments to cancer patients in their organizations at workingwithcancerpledge.com. 

According to the American Cancer Society, one in every two people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. A study conducted by OpinionWay for [email protected] in 2022 found that 50% of cancer patients are afraid to tell their employer about their diagnosis, despite 92% feeling that support at work positively impacts their health.

To draw attention to Working With Cancer, Publicis created a campaign that will run across business media to create a movement in the business communities. The pledge will also be accompanied by a video that exemplifies the experience of cancer patients hiding their condition from their colleagues, which will be on the website and across social media.

The 75-second spot, directed by Haya Waseem through Object & Animal, follows a handful of workers across the occupational spectrum trying to do their jobs while hiding the symptoms and struggles of living with cancer. It ends with a call to action to “abolish stigma and insecurity at work for those with cancer.”

While Sadoun stresses that he has always done everything he could as CEO to keep Publicis employees from feeling this stigma, the company’s own pledge includes providing cancer patients with full job security for at least one year, and bringing the necessary career support not only for them but also for caregivers in the organization.   

Working With Cancer has already garnered the support of global organizations including Bank of America, Disney, Google, L’Oréal, LVMH, Marriott, McDonald’s, Merck, Meta, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Omnicom Group, PepsiCo, Sanofi, Toyota, Unilever, Verizon and Walmart.  

Sadoun said he was initially astonished by the quick and fervent support from some of the largest employers in the world. 

“If those guys are capable of signing the pledge immediately it means that they’re already doing a lot of things for people with cancer, but people within their own company don’t know it,” Sadoun said. “We’re trying to tackle a very big challenge, which is the stigma of cancer in the workplace, with a pretty simple solution, which is only to change perception.”  

Holding companies IPG and Omnicom were also early supporters of the pledge, with Omnicom CEO John Wren responding to Sadoun’s email request and signing up almost immediately. “It took John only a minute to write me back and say they would be honored to have a part, which I thought says a lot,” Sadoun said. 

On World Cancer Day, Feb. 4, Working with Cancer is releasing a second campaign—this time aimed at the general public rather than employers—to encourage workplace support for colleagues with cancer. The campaign will feature out-of-home, partnerships with influencers and an additional TV spot. It will be backed by $100 million in donated media placement, including a promise of 100 billion reach impressions from Meta. 

Late last year, Sadoun used Publicis' annual holiday video to help drive awareness around the human papillomavirus (HPV) and the fact that there is a vaccine. The holiday video, which as usual featured Sadoun and his predecessor Maurice Levy, included a cameo appearance from actor Michael Douglas, who has also suffered from HPV-related cancer.