Testicular Cancer Canada has launched a ballsy new ad aimed at getting men to check their testes.
The 60-second spot, created by DentsuBos in Montreal, uses guinea pigs as stand-ins for testicles. Titled “Furballs,” the spot walks viewers through a self-exam using the furry rodents, for example, “place your fingers under each little fellow and apply light pressure with your thumb.”
Jocelyn Leroy, copywriter at DentsuBos, said the campaign started with a French version of the spot, since there’s a kind of guinea pig (cuy) that is pronounced the same as the French slang word for testicles (couille). “It’s funnier in French because it’s the exact same word,” he said.
“[Testicular Cancer Canada] wanted something funny, so we started with that because with this subject it’s easy to fall into lame jokes,” said Leroy. “So this idea was avoiding that… It’s funny because it’s furry little creatures, but we weren’t making fun of the disease.”
The aim of the spot is simply to raise awareness of testicular cancer. “[Testicular Cancer Canada] wants the disease to become more known, but they liked the fact that we also described the [self-exam] process because it’s very simple to do.”
The ad is DentusBos’ first creative work for Testicular Cancer Canada.
