Cannesplaining Healthcare: Creating Award-Worthy Work through Insight and Originality

·39 min·2 clips

Tom says 95% of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising “should be banned” because it is awful.

Aaron Stroup opens by setting up Real Chemistry's Cannes Lions coverage and introducing the special Cansplaining series. He says the team recorded three episodes from Cannes to share key learnings from the festival, along with interviews with special guests. Frank Mazzola then steps in for the season finale of Cansplaining and frames it as an over-explained Cannes wrap-up for anyone who wants the context. He sits with Tom Richards, Lauren Polina, and Chris Charles from the creative leadership of 21 Grams and Real Chemistry. The panel treats the episode like a working session more than a formal presentation. A central thread is the value of asking why more often, especially when a client asks for a CVA or a banner. Tom Richards argues that consumer-side work often pushes harder on the brief and can be useful background for health. He says the team should keep challenging itself on whether a given approach is the best way to tackle the brief and the best creative execution. The discussion then turns to emotional impact. The group agrees that people have to feel something for the work to matter. Richards says patients should be treated as consumers who need a reason to care, not as a captive audience. He stresses that advertising has to be entertaining enough to compete with what people are already into. A Cannes line lands with the panel: would somebody actually pay to see your work. That becomes a handy test of whether the work is distinctive enough to stand out. The conversation also comes back to consistency, with Richards saying he wants to be good, reliable, and the kind of agency that pushes the industry forward. The speakers back one another, keep the tone warm, and close with a casual invitation for clients and CMOs to join in.

As heard by us

A lively Cannes Lions wrap-up that makes healthcare feel more human, more direct, and harder to ignore.

This Cannes Lions wrap-up looks at healthcare through a creative lens and keeps asking what actually makes the work land. It stays practical about why the work deserves attention, how to speak to healthcare audiences like people, and why that question matters more than polished…

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Want Cannes takeaways you can use in healthcare creative work?

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