2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Black women have always been overlooked by the fashion industry. When brands created “nude” bras, Black women were forced to hand-paint theirs to match their skin tone. Everything changed in 2018, when Love & Nudes, a nude lingerie brand founded by and for Black women, became a pioneer in helping women of colour look and feel good in their bodies.

But by 2023, everyone from Victoria’s Secret to Skims were making nude bras for Black women. Love & Nudes couldn’t rely on their product as a meaningful way to connect with their audience. As more brands made nude bras for Black women, they found a new problem to solve. Black women face a 40% higher death rate from breast cancer than white women. It affects them younger, meaning early detection is vital. But 1-in-2 Black women don’t know what breast cancer looks or feels like. Many diagnostic tools exist for women, but nothing existed to help women of colour identify breast cancer
on darker skin.

“The Stage Zero Collection” is the world’s first tool designed specifically to help Black women identify the signs of breast cancer. Working with a Black female oncologist, they created Love & Nudes bras with medically accurate breast cancer symptoms characteristic of darker skin tones. The bras included true-to-life lumps and inflammatory textures. Black women could use the bras as a pre-diagnostic self-examination aide to understand the signs of breast cancer on their own skin tones.

For medical accuracy, they ran clinical trials over 18 months. 3D printers and industrial designers simulated true-to-life lumps and inflammatory textures and embedded them into a silicone-based attachment. Finally, makeup artists painstakingly hand-painted symptomatic discolourations onto each shade in the collection.

The campaign launched on World Cancer Day (February 4, 2023), during Black History Month, by giving the tools to healthcare leaders, doctors, community organizers, pastors, and influential health media figures at a panel event. Then, they tapped Black influencers across Canada to share the initiative with their followers. They also invited Black women to experience the collection for themselves at pop-up retail events in Black-owned stores within diverse communities.

Major institutions wanted their own Stage Zero Collection, eager to implement the tools in their practices. They created a petition to lower the screening age and armed a Black female MP to submit it to Parliament. Now, the Canadian government has committed $2M+ to early breast cancer detection, and the Health Minister of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, has agreed to lower the screening age to 40,
effective immediately.

Thanks to a fashion underdog, a preventable health inequity is being challenged, and millions of Black women have the tools to recognize the signs of breast cancer and access screening before it’s too late.

Credits

Agency: McCann Canada
CCO: Josh Stein
CSO: AJ Jones
President: Ryan Timms
Creative Director: Gail Pak
Creative Director: Mike Shuman
Art Director: Olivia Hashka
Copywriter: Jon Dick
Copywriter: Elfreda Tetteh
Strategist: Alexandra Montgomery
Designer: Johan Hogdahl
Account Supervisor: Navjot Kaur
VP, Director of Production: Jacqueline Bellmore
Producer: Laurie Filgiano
Producer: Sharon Nelson-Bailey
Analyst, Business Insights and Data: Rachel Wilson

Artist: Megan Campbell
Doctor: Dr. Mojola Omole

Production: Craft
Head of Content: Travis Wood
Producer, Director: Leen Tangney
Editor: Rod Reano
Animator: Jeromey Shannon
Designer: Pablo Rodriguez
Proofreader: Beverley Furer
Audio Engineer: Dino Cuzzolino

DOP: Alex Tong
AC: Praven Yoganathan

Post Production: Nice Shoes
Colourist: Tricia Hagoriles

Spark Innovations
President, Design Director: Chris Pearen
Senior Industrial Designer, Design Manager: Bartek Zalewski
Industrial Designer: Catalina Navarro
Industrial Designer: Asa Couture

Nova Product
Owner: Garry Campbell

Brand: Love & Nudes
Founder: Chantal Carter
Web Developer: Chris Twizell

McCann Development Team
VP Digital Solutions: Andrew Brown
Developer: Michael Harley

PR: Weber Shandwick
SVP, Creative Strategy - Becca Young
VP, Client Expérience - Cynthia Reyes
VP, Integrated Media Strategy - Deane Code
VP, Strategic Planning - Alicia Aleksandrowicz
Associate, Client Experience - MacKenzie Sheridan
Associate, Integrated Media - Kayne Alleyne-Adams
Associate, Integrated Media - Ashley Mcfarlane
Senior Associate, Integrated Media - Krystal St. John
Associate, Integrated Media - Florencia Cassagnet
Associate, Integrated Media - Taya Lafontaine