Vaseline wins Cannes Lions Health and Wellness Grand Prix for Verified campaign

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicked off Monday by awarding the work in the Pharma and Health & Wellness categories.

The Health & Wellness jury president Eric Weisberg, the global chief creative officer at Havas Health, presented the Grand Prix for that category, which went to Vaseline Verified for Unilever’s Vaseline brand, created by agency partner Ogilvy Singapore.

The campaign showed many of the Vaseline life hacks people have put out on the internet — including some good and some potentially dangerous. The campaign aimed to test the hacks in the Vaseline labs and “verify” the ones that actually work. 

“The zeitgeist of our time is health and well being,” Weisberg said. “And this met a moment in a way that perhaps no other piece of work so completely met the moment.”

The campaign boasted a success rate of 63.3 million social interactions, 87% positive sentiments and 7.1 million organic reach and views. 

Weisberg said of the work: “What so unified our jury, is joy in the face of adversity. This work that we celebrate brings joy as an act of rebellion.”

He added that the work he and his panel judged as winners isn’t just good for health and wellness, it’s good for the industry and good for humanity. 

The Vaseline campaign, he noted, had an accessibility that says to every client, “you should be doing work that combats the conversations that are not happening to bring people health from your products, but could be bringing people harm.”

Since people’s trust in brands has remained solid, he said the ability and responsibility of brands to combat misinformation is greater now than ever.

Six other agencies followed Ogilvy Singapore by snagging Gold Lions for the Health and Wellness category. 

On behalf of Idomed, Artplan’s San Paolo team put together the art and a short film that highlights racial bias in medicine. The film for the Nigrum Corpus campaign focuses on underlying microagressions and discriminations Black people face when accessing the healthcare system. 

According to the Federal Council of Medicine, only 3% of doctors in Brazil are Black. On average, Black patients wait approximately 10 minutes more to see the doctor, and consultations with Black patients last 47% less than with white patients. 

Meanwhile, Peruvian agency Circus Grey created readable sidewalks for visually impaired people in the Sightwalks campaign for cement company Cemento Sol. 

The campaign included visuals of the sidewalk design, and a digital spot that highlights the importance of the issue. 

VML Paris’ team took home a Gold Lion for its work with Axa on its mental health campaign backed by actor and standup comedian Kevin Hart. 

The centerpiece of the campaign was Group Therapy, a 90-minute documentary with standup comedians who sit and share their experiences with therapy to bring awareness to the different dynamics of mental health. 

Another MM+M 2025 honoree Area 23, an IPG company, launched a campaign with Zip Code Exam which leverages artistic visuals to help people navigate health data about communities. 

The Gold Lions-winning campaign included dynamic visuals to showcase the community health scores of those living in a specific zip code, giving organizations insight into barriers communities face. 

Finch’s Sydney team, Motion Sickness in New Zealand and the New Zealand Herpes foundation also snagged a Lion for The Best Place in the World to Have Herpes campaign.

The campaign uses humor to draw in audiences across New Zealand to bring awareness about herpes, which is a public health issue across the country. 

It’s estimated that up to 80% of New Zealanders will contract oral or genital herpes at some point in their lives. As the country prides itself for being #1 in areas like nature and beaches, the campaign is a play on making it the best place to get herpes and live to tell the tale. 

This campaign also received the 2025 Lions Health and United Nations Grand Prix for Good.

FCB Toronto took home the final Gold Lion for its work with SickKids Foundation’s 150th anniversary. 

The campaign’s short film — titled The Count — featured 20 sick kids and the journeys they and their families take to make it to their birthdays. 

The theme is something the foundation mentioned was something many parents experience — literally fighting for their kid to stay healthy until their next birthday. 

This story first appeared on MM+M.