Submitted by OgilvyAgency IPI Score 95/100

The Art of Self Examination

PR & Communications

Ogilvy and DAVID Buenos Aires built an interactive museum exhibition for MACMA that taught breast self-examination through touchable classic paintings. The work won a Cannes Lions Gold.

Case in 60 seconds

MACMA needed to teach women how to recognise early signs of breast cancer through palpation, a technique that conventional advertising struggles to convey.

A physical skill is best taught physically; touching art is culturally permitted where touching one's own body feels taboo.

Let visitors touch reproductions of classic paintings whose figures, per Dr. Liliana Sosa's research, show visual signs of possible breast cancer.

Ogilvy and DAVID Buenos Aires staged an interactive museum exhibition using works by Rembrandt, Rubens and Raphael, inviting the public to practise palpation on the artworks.

No attendance or behaviour metrics are published; the stated outcome is a Cannes Lions Gold. Other performance data is undisclosed.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

The museum-going public, and women who need to learn breast self-examination.
Self-examination is a taboo, uncomfortable subject that health advertising rarely makes tangible.
A palpation technique cannot be taught by a poster or a film; it needs to be practised.
MACMA positioned itself as an educator, using cultural institutions and famous art to give a health lesson authority and reach.
Reframing self-touch as the permitted act of touching art lets people rehearse the real skill without discomfort, and the paintings' fame makes it memorable.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Interactive museum exhibition
  • Touchable reproductions of paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Raphael

Partners

  • Ogilvy
  • DAVID Buenos Aires

Participation mechanic

  • Visitors physically touched the artworks to learn palpation technique

Creator role

  • Not applicable; experiential exhibition

Why Ogilvy's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Teaching a physical skill through a physical act made an abstract health lesson tangible.

  2. 2

    Reframing self-touch as touching art removed the taboo and gave visitors permission to practise.

  3. 3

    Anchoring the lesson in famous paintings made it memorable and gave it cultural authority.

  4. 4

    Grounding the creative in Dr. Liliana Sosa's research gave the idea credibility beyond a stunt.

Related Case studies