Brazil understands the importance of branded content, but investments in this area are not very high. Therefore, while it is a valued practice in the country, it is not an agency’s typical first choice. Some restrictions are also found when dealing with the children's market, as all content must be appropriate and regulated before placement.

GRAACC wants to end society’s prejudice against bald children. Many kids say that one of the hardest parts of battling cancer is the stares and whispers in the playground, as other kids react to their bald head.

Our idea was to challenge people’s perceptions. Baldness wasn’t something to be stared. Baldness was just another part of life for normal kids, who happened to be fighting for their lives with courage.

We invited famous cartoon characters to go bald to spread a powerful message: “A child with cancer deserves to be seen just like any other child”

We spoke with cartoons artists and studios and asked them to re-sketch their characters as Baldies.

Next, we had to convince the TV and Newspaper broadcasters to support the campaign. We asked for regular media, but also to become a natural part of their editorial programming so the Baldie cartoons could become content in TV, comics strips etc.

We used this content to promote the National Day Against Childhood Cancer (November 23th). We published all the Baldies character content: Special cartoon episodes broadcasted on the most relevant channels; short animated films; newspaper comic strips; comic books; posters; songs; and a website housing all the campaign content and prompting people to interact and share the materials.

As our content showed the Baldie cartoon characters going about their normal everyday lives, it sent a message to children everywhere that kids with cancer are no different.

Brazilian celebrities got on board and supported the campaign by changing their profile pictures to a Baldie cartoon and sharing campaign content.

Following a successful campaign launch and the positive response in Brazil in 2013, the Baldies are set to take on the world and go global in 2014.

Success for Bald Cartoons depended entirely on engaging people with an uncomfortable topic. Therefore, we wanted to avoid creating special content about cancer. Instead, our strategy was to place our content in the channels/audience already uses as part of their daily routine.

We partnered with the most popular media channels in Brazil to ‘bald’ the hair of famous characters. As people watched the cartoons on TV, or read their favorite comic strips, they saw the characters transformed.

To encourage further engagement, there was a website that housed all the generated content and where people could interact and share the materials.

The campaign was a humbling reminder of business’ and people’s willingness to engage with and share branded content, when given a powerful message.

More than 40 famous characters became a Baldie.

Special episodes aired on: Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Fox Kids etc.

Comic strips were featured in newspapers/magazines such as Folha de São Paulo, Combo Rangers and Monica’s Gang.

230 millions people were reached by the campaign.

91% of Brazilian Social Media users were impacted. Engaged with the campaign, either sharing videos, downloading posters or changing profile pictures. Even Brazilian president tweeted the campaign.

Despite no request for donations – GRAACC received 10 times more than in 2012.

Best of all, children with cancer no longer felt different after having Baldie heroes by their side.