Ignoring the early signs of cancer would be stupid. But that’s exactly what thousands of British people do everyday. So how do you tell a nation that they are behaving stupidly, about something so serious? You simply show them.

On a street in Hackney, over time, a mysterious lump grows out from the pavement. It gets bigger and bigger until finally it becomes impossible to ignore. Or so you’d imagine. In fact the hundreds of passers-by do nothing, carrying on with their day, ignoring the lump that has taken up home in their midst. A title says:

It’s easy to ignore something, especially when we’re busy.

But spotting cancer sooner could save your life.

Ignoring the early signs of cancer would be stupid. But that’s exactly what thousands of British people do every single day. Persuading them to check out a lump early would save millions of pounds and thousands of lives.

So we ‘grew’ a lump on a busy British highstreet. To show people just how stupid they’re behaving about something so serious. Over time, six incremental sized lumps were secretly swapped into the street. Incredibly, people did nothing. Even when the lump grew impossible to ignore. Once revealed the campaign proved our powerful message:

Don’t ignore a lump.

Logo: Cancer research UK

#Spot cancer sooner

The aim was to change the attitudes of the country. The campaign prompted early diagnosis stories on national news. Chat on Twitter was the highest for any Cancer Research UK campaign. The film was their most shared campaign to date with an overall reach of 2.4M people. Most importantly people have been shocked in to thinking differently about their own behaviour. The results of which will only truly be felt in the years to come.