Cannes: TBWA India’s “Blink To Speak” integrated campaign for the Asha EK Hope Foundation has been awarded the Lions Health Grand Prix For Good at the Cannes Festival of Creativity. The campaign has been described by one jury president as a kind of ‘cure of paralysis’.
The team at TBWA India has devised a way to help the patients using the power of eyes; ‘Blink To Speak’ is the world’s first eye language for patients who have an alert mind but a paralyzed body.
“The award is designed to recognize creative achievements that promote the advance of social good and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” said Health Grand Prix for Good Jury President Rajesh Mirchandani, Chief Communications Officer, United Nations Foundation.“To do this, we must come up with ideas that are scalable and reach the furthest left behind. We got chills when we saw ‘Blind to Speak’. We were impressed with its simplicity and its ability to inspire and empower.”
“The ‘Blink to Speak’ eye language guide was created for the non-profit organisation Asha Ek Hope Foundation and NeuroGen Brand and Spine Institute, after several months of research with doctors, patients and caregivers to ensure the guide would make a real difference to those people’s lives who are struggling with speech. To win the Grand Prix For Good at Cannes is testament to the power of this solution and is true to Cannes’ reputation of awarding creativity that makes a real difference. We accept this honour on behalf of Neurogen and Asha Ek Hope Foundation who were always passionate and supportive throughout the process helping to bring this intellectual property to life.” commented Parixit Bhattacharya, chief creative officer at TBWA\India.
Blink To Speak uses 50 simple eye movements to build an extensive eye language. They assigned simple messages commonly needed by patients to basic combinations of eye movements. They created very easy to use sets of eye actions using the 8 alphabets of the eye language – Shut, Blink, Left, Right, Up, Down, Roll and Wink. The guide is slated to launch in more languages later this week on June 21 in support of Global MND Awareness Day.
The Lions Health Grand Prix for Good is open to Gold Lion-winning entries ineligible for a Grand Prix in their section.
The Healthcare Agency of the Year was awarded to Havas Lynx; second to Area 23, an FCB Health Network Company; and third to Langland.
The Healthcare Network of the Year was awarded to FCB Health; second to Havas Health & You; and third to Publicis Health.
The Young Lions Health winners were also announced during the Awards Show. The winners were: Gerardo Saavedra, Felipa, Mexico and Emiliano Salmon, Felipa, Mexico.
