In the UK, health and wellness communications are governed by the ABPI/PMCPA, PAGB and MHRA with guidance provided by ASA. Medical devices are also covered by the Medical Device Regulation (EU) 2017/745.

People with diabetes use needles 7-12 times each day to check their blood. That can be more than 4,000 times a year. The Dexcom G6 uses no needles at all to monitor blood. So it is undoubtedly life-changing. Because our creative celebrates that major benefit, we believe it is life-changing.

The goal of our campaign was to create a visual testament to the old way of life for diabetics – something that represented what they’re leaving behind. (The Dexcom G6 means they no longer have to prick their fingers to monitor blood sugar – a massive life change for diabetes sufferers.) We worked with 3 real diabetics, calculating how many times they’d pricked their finger since being diagnosed. Then we asked Andrew James, a leading British portrait artist, to create images of them using that number of fingerprints (ranging from 16,000 to 21,000) – and nothing but fingerprints. Andrew used only his fingers to create the images, on canvases around 2m high and 1.5m wide. Each one took 50+ hours to prepare, and 70+ hours to execute. It was truly painstaking work, created entirely by eye and without any CGI, Photoshop or digital manipulation during the portraits’ creation.