Two Omnicom agencies and one IPG shop took home health care top honors on Monday at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. TBWA\London won the Health and Wellness Grand Prix for #StealOurStaff, a campaign from toiletries brand Beco that encourages hiring people with disabilities.

In Pharma, FCB’s Area 23 won the Grand Prix for “Sick Beats,” a musically improved vest from sound company Woojer to help those with cystic fibrosis.

AMV BBDO won the Grand Prix for Good in Health for #WombPainStories, a campaign from Essity feminine care brand Libresse (also known as Bodyform) that shows the internal workings of the uterus and how women’s bodies work and also tells stories of the pain women have endured from endometriosis. The campaign continues its sweep of prizes, having won Best of Show in the One Show for 2021 and a Black Pencil at D&AD 2021. It was widely predicted to be a major winner at Cannes. 

Libresse was also behind 2018’s Blood Normal, which won acclaim including a Glass Lion at Cannes in 2018 for using realistic red instead of blue liquid to depict menstruation and break taboos, and Viva La Vulva, which won a Cannes Titanium Lion in 2019.

Area 23 also was named healthcare agency of the year. A video for “Sick Beats” shows how the vest works—music frequency from the vest, which is connected to Spotify, helps loosen mucous for kids.

“We wanted to do something really great for children,” said Pam Savage, senior VP, creative director, at Area 23, in a livestreamed interview about the “Sick Beats” win, noting that it took about a month to get a prototype for the vest, but the entire project was years in the making. She spoke about the “marriage of health tech and entertainment.”

Anne de Schweintiz, global managing director of healthcare at FleishmanHillard, who was jury president, called the project “the future,” noting the cool use of technology in the vest and how it provides a solution for parents of children with CF.

“To turn tech to such an important, beautiful use in such a cool way, I think really blew everybody away in the jury room,” de Schweintiz said. “This is a solution, it is an innovation more than a campaign, it is something that will change the lives of the people.”

She noted that traditionally, creativity in the pharmaceutical industry has been difficult because it is such a highly regulated space, but “the work we saw this year, the caliber of the submissions was exceptional.” The purpose to improve lives that was driving the work helped overcome any barriers, she added.