Not enough people talk about bladder cancer – and that's how it grows. Our mission was to spread awareness of its number one warning sign – blood in urine. We used the street as our media, specifically where people urinate. Streets, alleys and public restrooms were targeted to highlight what is usually a formulaic message.
The Peeing People
A cancer campaign that made its mark
Client
- Merck KGaA
Office
- Italy
"The Peeing People" brings an overlooked cancer into the spotlight – painting a picture of silent symptoms for the world to see.
The Peeing People has been a very impactful cancer awareness campaign for Merck. By stepping outside traditional media and embracing the language of street art, we were able to engage people in a way that felt organic, unexpected and urgent.
Khalid Latif
Global ECD, VML Health (EU)
In a world flooded with the same old messages, we needed to make a splash warning people of the main symptom of bladder cancer to watch out for that's often caught too late - blood in urine. How could we turn heads and get people to see what they’re missing in an oversaturated OOH environment? To combat the lack of public awareness around bladder cancer’s number one symptom, we created an unconventional OOH campaign inspired by the rebellious world of street art.
To stop people in their tracks and break the norms of familiar OOH campaigns, we were inspired by one of street art's most rebellious artists.
"The Peeing People" is a series of stencil graffiti artworks styled after Banksy, an artist whose work everyone recognizes and loves to photograph, paired with a QR code that led to an awareness website. Our "Peeing People" showed off the #1 sign of bladder cancer, blood in urine, in ways spray-painted in places where nature calls: streets, alleyways, and of course. public restrooms.
These bold creations were experienced by over 3 million people first-hand across six nations including the UK, US, Spain, France, Germany and India, and stopped 73,000 people in their tracks as they scanned our QR code and went from the street to online to get the facts about bladder cancer and book an appointment with a doctor. We even made a mark on one of Spain's most popular television shows, spreading awareness to over 8.6 million primetime viewers. We also launched a branded campaign for doctors for oncology events at two of Spain's major hospitals.
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Awards
2025 CDEC Creativity Club Awards
Silver
2024 Eurobest
Bronze
2024 ADCI
Gold
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