DENTSU CREATIVE’S CAMPAIGN « A LETTER TO MYSELF » WINS THE PUBLIC’S FAVORITE PLACE AT COUP DE COEUR #JAO2023

On the occasion of the AACC*’s Agencies Open Day, ACT Responsible organized an online vote with the aim of disseminating the best major French cause campaigns of the year. Starting from a “longlist” of 94 campaigns, a Top26 was submitted to the public vote from March 14 to 21 via a platform developed by Adforum. Dentsu Creative wins the 1st place with an average score of 9.76.

Interview with Damien Lebreuilly & Allan Huon, Associate Creative Directors at Dentsu Creative. 

« The idea behind these « Coup de Coeur » (public’s favorite vote) is to highlight the best advertising campaigns on social and environmental themes, to inspire the profession and to offer a spotlight on these achievements for a few days to make them visible to the greatest number. » says Sophie Guerinet, Co-founder of ACT Responsible in charge of content.

Damien & Allan react: « It’s a very good initiative! Advertising sells but it also changes mentalities. It’s important to value the campaigns that have this mission because it allows to raise awareness among more and more people. And it is even better if they make people think and inspire. »

Throwback to the story of the campaign with Damien Lebreuilly & Allan Huon the creative team who worked on the brief.

 

Today, an HIV-positive person who has been under treatment for 6 months has an undetectable and therefore non transmissible viral load. They have a life expectancy similar to the one of an HIV-negative person. They can have children naturally and no longer transmit the virus even if they have unprotected sex. This is a major advance! This concept is called TasP (Treatment as prevention): the treatment of an HIV-positive person also acts as a tool for HIV prevention. And this has been around for about ten years now. The problem is that few people know about it! Moreover, in France, 25,000 people do not know that they are HIV positive.  The request from Santé Publique France to make people aware of TasP and to encourage them to get tested, was therefore important!

HIV is still associated with death. HIV-positive people continue to be discriminated against and testing is scary. However, tomorrow, if all HIV-positive people took treatment, there would – in theory – be no more circulation of the virus.  Behind « A letter to myself« , there is thus a message of hope: that « no, a positive result is not the end of our life. » And the people best suited to carry this message are those who have been there many years before. That’s how the idea of HIV-positive people writing a letter to themselves on the day they found out they were HIV-positive came to light.

The team put out a call for participation and the answers were very enthusiastic. They talked with several HIV-positive people, particularly about the moment of the announcement of the result. It was both very emotional and hopeful. They thought they were going to die that day but they are still here today and living normally.

It was not a brief like the others, Damien & Allan tell us: the writing of the letters, the moment of the reading, the day of the shooting, the surprise with the relatives who came on the set, the party at the end of the shooting… « All the steps of the realization were touching, full of meaning. We had in our heart to do well and this fight does not leave us« .

Damien & Allan are aware that their profession has a huge responsibility on these fundamental subjects. « We have the financial and human means to tell beautiful stories, to convey emotions and messages that have an impact and to make society adopt new behaviors. Let’s not waste this opportunity ». Both directors are satisfied with the participation of the sector but, obviously, « we can always do better« . The most important thing is sincerity. Understanding the issues, approaching these subjects as humbly as possible and with intelligence, is what they consider essential.

 View the Top 26 campaigns on Adforum.

*Association des Agences Conseils en Communication (french association of communication agencies)

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