The Movember Foundation is on a mission to change the typical response and have an everlasting impact on the face of men’s health. Every year during November, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of millions of moustaches on men's faces around the world in a coordinated effort to raise funds and awareness for men’s health.

Area 23 joined the Movember cause to ensure its employees were not only aware of the pressing men’s health issues of the day, but to actively help change the men’s health conversation among family, friends, and colleagues. We created a humorous awareness campaign focused on the absence of mustaches from famous personalities easily identified by their follicular fashion statements. By showing employees how a single mustache can make a big difference, we enrolled dozens of colleagues on the Area 23 Movember team and collectively “Reached our Motential.”

As an internal awareness campaign, there were no specific restrictions.

During Movember, our poster campaign was a primary driver of employee participation. Dozens of employees responded to the posters’ call-to-action to help raise funds and awareness for men’s health. By the end of Movember, the agency met a $5000 fundraising goal and encouraged employees to be more aware of the pressing nature of men’s health.

Men have it much worse than they care to admit. They may be the traditional hunter/gatherers, but all that manliness comes at a price—most prominently in life expectancy, which is ~5 years less than women. Additionally, health problems like prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health are often addressed in a typical manly manner: “I’ll deal with it when I have to.”

Looking around the office, we realized that despite working in healthcare advertising, many of our male colleagues embodied this laissez-faire, reactive mentality. We determined that if we were going to make a difference in people’s health, raise awareness, and encourage people to take a preventive approach, our message would have to be refreshing and unique to get noticed.