In Argentina, more than 1 case of prostate cancer is diagnosed per hour and more than 11,600 per year. It is the second cause of death from cancer in men, where 1 in 6 will develop it throughout their lives. Prevention raises survival to more than 80%, but 7 out of 10 don't get checked annually. 30% of patients arrive at the doctor’s office in advanced stages and 70% with localized tumors.

The digital rectal exam continues to be a taboo that hinders prevention. Many men feel that it threatens their manhood, so they avoid it at all costs. They feel ashamed and afraid that a doctor, by inserting a finger into their rectum, will attack their masculinity. The objective was to break the prejudices about the exam to save lives and to make them aware of the importance of prevention.

Health promotion campaigns are typically designed to elicit fear, yet the use of fear is often ineffective in achieving the desired behaviour change. We need to use a radically different approach and break the existing taboo and prejudices over the rectal examination. The Finger Puppets come to life and perform a funny, catchy, didactic song that invites us to lose the fear of the rectal examination. The idea was to naturalize the procedure and break with the taboos that are born from prejudices and lack of information. By showing the meaninglessness of this fear we demonstrated that once overcome it, it’s not only painless, super-fast, and can save your life!

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, where 1 in 6 will develop it throughout his life.

Although it is a disease in which early detection raises survival rates to more than 80%, there are still many factors that threaten prevention. Paradoxically, the one that generates the most barriers against carrying out the controls is the protagonist of the digital rectal examination: the doctor's finger.

The strategy consisted of demystifying the procedure by breaking the exam taboo through a relaxed song, easy to identify and remember. The goal was to demonstrate that that “scary” finger was the one that could save your life, in a painlessly and quickly way.

During April and May, we air on local channels and radio stations. Also, communicated organically on LALCEC (Argentine League for the Fight Against Cancer) social media networks and a press release came out. Then on the 11th of June, the World Prostate Cancer Day, we are going to make the strongest advertising investment and add an influencer strategy to intensify campaign impact.

Even though the work was launched on the eve of World Prostate Cancer Day, we already began to see incredible incipient results: during the first week of the campaign on-air, the social media engagement increased as well as the buzz regarding not only the illness but mainly this silent prejudice, common to the vast majority of argentine men.

It was the first time that a campaign talked about the sexist relation between the DRE and men’s masculinity. This new point of view gave the press something extra fresh to talk about prostate cancer prevention.