The Challenge
HOW TO CURE A TABOO THAT KILLS ? Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest cancer in France — yet, paradoxically, one of the least talked about. Despite the availability of simple, life-saving screening tests, participation remains alarmingly low. The reason? A stubborn cultural taboo: people simply don’t like talking about poop, let alone associating it with cancer. And if nobody talks, nobody acts. Faced with this silence, The French League Against Cancer knew that a conventional awareness campaign wouldn’t cut it. They needed something bold, disruptive, and memorable — a campaign that could smash the stigma and start a national conversation. The creative challenge was sharp: how do you talk about poop and cancer in a way that grabs attention, drives action, and doesn’t make people turn away in discomfort? The goal was not just to inform, but to inspire. To turn awkwardness into awareness, and silence into dialogue. The ambition was high, the budget wasn’t: just €40K in production costs.
The Solution
TWO WORDS. MILLIONS OF CONVERSATIONS. How do you turn a medical taboo into a national conversation? Simple. You tell them to ‘piss off’. But in French, and with a shit twist : Va chier : a classically grumpy French expression that you can hear everywhere and all the time in our country. Va chier literaly means ‘Go have a shit’. It’s our boldest, most unexpected way to say: “Please, get screened for colorectal cancer.” Just two words. Straight to the gut. We had a small media budget — just enough for an OOH campaign. So we slapped it on t-shirts, stamped it on mugs and put it straight into the right hands. With this killer press kit, sent to France’s hottest voices —actors, singers, writers, journalists, and influencers — we hijacked TVs, newspapers, radios, and social feeds. And just like that, a topic no one wanted to touch, was suddenly on everyone’s lips. No more taboos. Talk of the town.