CVS’s Ban on Cigarettes, P&G’s Focus on Self-Esteem of Adolescent Girls Win Top Honors at PR Week Awards

Campaigns championing health-related causes dominated the prestigious PR Week Awards Thursday in New York City, with CVS Health and Procter & Gamble’s Always brand winning multiple categories.

3BL Media congratulates all the winners and runners-up. Complete list here.

MSLGroup and its account, P&G/Always, won Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year, Cause-Related Campaign of the Year and Best Use of Social Media/Digital for a video-centric campaign showing the impact of the phrase “like a girl” on pre- and post-pubescent girls. A video released on the Always YouTube channel earned 76 million views.

Edelman and CVS Health won Healthcare Campaign of the Year and Corporate Branding Campaign of the Year for the retailer’s decision to pull tobacco products off its shelves, sacrificing $2 billion in revenues. The cigarette ban led to a rebranding from CVS to CVS Health and a commitment to assist smokers in kicking the habit. The CVS stock price jumped 9 percent in the three weeks following the announcement and a survey demonstrated non-customers were planning to switch to CVS in support of the anti-tobacco stance.

In addition to recognizing brands for the communications work around CSR, PR Week honored the founder of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Pete Frates, as Communicator of the Year. The 30-year-old Boston man, who was diagnosed with the progressive neuro-degenerative disorder known as Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2012, is credited for creating last year’s biggest viral success. Corporate leaders, entertainers, sports figures and philanthropists like Bill Gates participated and raised more than $200 million toward finding a cure for ALS.

In thanking PR Week for selecting her son for the honor, Nancy Frates, noted that her son majored in communications at Boston College before falling ill.

“Pete has found his calling. He really knows why he was put on this earth,” Nancy Frates told the ballroom packed with PR professionals.

The 2015 PR Week Awards were dominated by campaigns emphasizing corporate citizenship, sustainability and CSR:

• Dell won honorable mention in the Business-to-Business Campaign of the Year category for “Dell Breaks Down Barriers for Female Entrepreneurs,” which partnered with the UN Women’s Foundation and operated in 15 countries.
• Eric Mower + Associates and BlueShield of Western New York won Community Relations Campaign of the Year for its Painkillers Kill effort to address an epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse among young adults.
• Coyne PR won honorable mention in Community Relations Campaign of the Year for In the Line of Fire: National Canine Research Council Helps Reduce Police and Dog Encounters.
• GCI Health and Merck won honorable mention in the Multicultural Marketing Campaign of the Year for “American Diabetes Challenge: Get to Your Goals,” aimed at blacks and Hispanics who attend church.
• The agency Davies and its client, Dominion won Public Affairs Campaign of the Year for “Dominion Cove Point,” which stressed the positive environmental and economic impact of a Maryland energy project.
• Save Our Strength won Nonprofit Campaign of the Year for its Save Summer campaign, which used texting to deliver meals to children during the summer school break.
• Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications and its account, The Chicago Community Trust, won honorable mention in the Nonprofit Campaign of the Year category for On the Table 2014, which orchestrated civic engagement over dinner.
• Ketchum and ConAgra Foods Foundation won honorable mention in the Cause-Related Campaign of the Year category for Helping Kids Have a Hunger Free Summer.
• Coyne PR and Goodyear won honorable mention in Best Use of Social Media/Digital for Goodyear Joins Ice Cube to Make it a Good Day, aiding an inner city Los Angeles after-school youth charity.

(Photo caption: Linda Rutherford, right, vice president of communication & outreach at Southwest Airlines, presented PR Week’s Cause-Related Campaign of the Year award to MSLGroup for P&G/Always. Photo by Dave Armon, 3BL Media)

By Dave Armon, CMO, 3BL Media