Adult movies have suddenly become the hot place to put cancer PSAs.
M&C Saatchi in Sydney worked with adult film studio Digital Playground and the Nonprofit Blue Ball Foundation to place an unexpected testicular-cancer PSA inside Game of Balls, an X-rated Game of Thrones parody, last month.
During one of the flick's steamy scenes, actress Eva Lovia—who really should try harder with her porn name—briefly breaks character (such as it is) to demonstrate a cancer check on a male member of the cast. She also tells viewers to visit PlayWithYourself.org for more information. It's stroke of genius, I'd say! (But I say lots of silly things.)
Check out the case study below, which is not explicit but might be a bit NSFW anyway.
So far, 200,000 people have visited the site, and total video views have passed 1.5 million, according to the video. "We're overwhelmed with the amount of feedback we've been getting, from emails to Facebook messages to phone calls from all over the world," says Blue Balls founder Jamie Morgan.
This isn't the first ballsy way of generating exposure for the cause. McCann Lima and PornHub recently dispatched adult performer Charlotte Stokely—now that's a porn-star name!—to show men how to perform self-examinations, and Cancer Research U.K. went all-in with last year's selfie-sock campaign. (There was also DDB Bolivia's breast-check adult clip, though Pornhub has questioned that case study's claims of success.)
In any case, hopefully some of the messaging will rub off on the intended audience.
CREDITS
Client: The Blue Ball Foundation
Jamie Morgan: Founder
Agency: M&C Saatchi
Ben Welsh: ECD
Ant Melder: CD
Josh Bryer: Writer
David Jackson: Art Director
Matt Porter: M&C Saatchi: PR Manager
Jaimes Leggett: M&C Saatchi: CEO
Justin Graham: M&C Saatchi: CSO
PR: Bang PR
Annalise Brown: Managing Director
Peta Frost: Account Manager
Zoe Finlayson: Account Executive
Production: Digital Playground
Jeanette Li: Marketing & PR Coordinator
Jakodema: Director