‘Make New Zealand the Best Place in the World to Have Herpes‘ has won at Cannes. The campaign scooped a Grand Prix for Good at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025.
On day one of the festival, the campaign became one of the first to receive a Grand Prix. The campaign – one of 26,000 entries – was led by Motion Sickness and production partner FINCH.
Awarded by United Nations Foundation, the Grand Prix is the highest accolade in each category, representing one of the most prestigious awards in creativity.
“It pains me as an Australian to award this to our smaller, cooler and far funnier neighbour. They took a taboo topic and turned it on its head,” says David Ohana, United Nations Foundation’s chief communications and marketing officer.
Breaking taboos with national icons
The campaign aimed to dismantle the stigma around herpes and help people feel comfortable discussing it openly.
The work features a lineup of public figures who fronted the campaign with honesty, humour and heart. Sir Graham Henry, Sir Ashley Bloomfield are among the campaign’s famous faces.
Within just eight weeks, the campaign made global headlines. It generated over 22.4 million earned PR impressions and more than 10,000 hours of educational content viewed, leading to measurable social impact.
A Kiwi legacy in global creativity
“For Motion Sickness to be recognised with a Grand Prix for Good is surreal,” says Sam Stuchbury, Motion Sickness’ executive creative director.
“We’re very happy to be taking creativity and herpes from New Zealand to the world stage. It shows what can happen with brave clients, world-class-unconventional-creative thinking and a ragtag group of New Zealand icons.”
