MSD Israel and agency Hooligans launched 'The Art of Besting Cancer' in January 2019, an experiential exhibition transforming clinical oncology materials into
MSD Israel Turns Oncology Into Art to Honor the Doctors Fighting Cancer
"The Art of Besting Cancer" is a January 2019 experiential campaign created by Hooligans for MSD in Israel, transforming authentic clinical oncology materials into an art exhibition that honors the medical caregivers who dedicate their lives to fighting cancer.
MSD Israel, in partnership with Tel Aviv agency Hooligans, constructed a four-part exhibition drawing on genuine oncological artifacts collected and curated over approximately one year before the campaign's launch. The exhibition was not conceived for a general public audience. Its intended recipients were the oncologists, surgeons, and medical caregivers who work daily within the clinical realities the materials represent — people for whom cancer is not a narrative but a professional and emotional constant. By recontextualising the instruments and imagery of their own discipline as art, the campaign sought to reframe their labor as something worthy of reflection, reverence, and recognition.
In Israel, where the oncology sector operates under sustained pressure from rising caseloads and the emotional demands placed on specialist physicians, campaigns directed at healthcare professionals rather than patients represent a distinct and deliberate strategic choice. "The Art of Besting Cancer" belongs to this category, functioning as a gesture of acknowledgment from MSD toward the clinical community that prescribes and administers its oncology portfolio. The campaign sits within the experiential medium — one media asset documented — and was submitted to industry archives including Ads of the World and recorded on Clapboard, where it carries a Clapboard Score of 77 out of 100. The work represents a confluence of healthcare communication, art direction, and institutional empathy that distinguishes it from conventional pharmaceutical advertising of the same period.
Hooligans identified a precise and underserved audience for this campaign. Oncologists and medical caregivers in Israel face a professional environment defined by clinical complexity and emotional weight, and MSD's decision to address them directly — rather than routing its message through patient-facing advertising — reflects a strategic understanding of how pharmaceutical relationships with prescribers are built over time.
The campaign's strategic architecture rests on a core insight: that the people who fight cancer most intimately rarely see their own work reflected back to them in terms of meaning or artistry. Pharmaceutical advertising in competitive oncology markets has historically defaulted to efficacy claims and clinical data, a pattern well established across global markets. Competitors operating in the Israeli oncology space, including Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb, have predominantly communicated through clinical evidence frameworks directed at specialists. MSD chose a different register entirely, using the language of art to speak to professionals who operate in the language of science.
The decision to spend approximately one year curating authentic clinical materials before the exhibition opened signals a commitment to credibility that underpins the strategic premise. A campaign addressing oncologists with fabricated or illustrative clinical imagery would undermine the very professional respect it sought to convey. The use of real immunohistochemistry-stained cancer cells, actual tumor imaging data, and genuine medical artifacts ensured that the exhibition could withstand the scrutiny of its intended audience. As reported by AdHugger in January 2019, the campaign assembled portraits of cancer cells, three-dimensional projections of tumors, and specimen jar mosaics into a coherent visual language — one designed to resonate with those who recognise the materials from their own clinical practice. This strategic alignment between medium, message, and audience is the foundation on which the campaign's creative ambition rests.
Hooligans structured the exhibition across four distinct components, each corresponding to a stage of cancer treatment: diagnosis, imaging, treatment, and surgery. The creative team brought together chief creative director Sahar Lewenstein, chief art director Miriam Moshinsky, creative director Tal Manor, art director Yanay Halevy, and creative team members Lior Bergman and Ori Agoni, according to records documented on Ads of the World and Clapboard.
The diagnosis component presented immunohistochemistry-stained cancer cells as memorial portraits, as described by AdHugger on January 31, 2019. The staining process used in pathology laboratories to identify cancer markers produces imagery of considerable visual complexity — deep purples, crimsons, and cellular geometries that, when presented at exhibition scale, carry an aesthetic force entirely removed from their clinical context while remaining scientifically authentic. The imaging component placed classical sculptural forms against three-dimensional projections of lung and breast tumors, per AdHugger's January 2019 review, creating a visual dialogue between idealized human form and the internal realities of disease. A third component involved specimen jars assembled into mosaic compositions, further extending the transformation of clinical material into contemplative object.
The year-long curation period preceding the January 2019 launch in Israel was not incidental to the creative execution — it was constitutive of it. The team at Hooligans required access to real oncological materials and the clinical expertise to handle and contextualise them appropriately. The result is a body of work in which craft and content are inseparable: the artistry derives directly from the authenticity of the source material. Production credits beyond the named creative team are not publicly documented in available industry sources, and no verified director or production company attribution has been identified for the physical exhibition build.
No verified performance data for "The Art of Besting Cancer" is publicly available. No figures relating to physician attendance, MSD brand sentiment among oncologists in Israel, prescriber engagement, or post-campaign tracking have been published in any accessible industry source, including Ads of the World, AdHugger, Hooligans' own documentation, or the Clapboard archive.
Structural analysis of the campaign's effectiveness nonetheless yields substantive observations. The choice of experiential medium for an audience of oncologists and medical caregivers is well suited to the objective of emotional resonance. Clinical professionals are trained to evaluate evidence, and an exhibition built from authentic oncological materials provides a form of credibility that conventional advertising cannot replicate. The year-long material curation process, as documented across Ads of the World and Hooligans' records, represents a significant resource investment that signals institutional seriousness to its target audience.
The campaign's focus on Israel as its geographic market reflects an understanding that pharmaceutical relationship-building with specialist physicians operates at a local and relational level, even for a global brand of MSD's scale. By framing oncologists' work as art, the campaign positions MSD not merely as a product supplier but as an institution that understands and honors the human dimensions of cancer medicine. This positioning carries long-term brand value within the prescriber community that extends well beyond any single campaign cycle. The Clapboard Score of 77 out of 100 reflects the campaign's creative originality and strategic precision, tempered by the absence of documented outcomes and the inherently limited reach of a single-market experiential execution.
"The Art of Besting Cancer" is a January 2019 experiential campaign created by Hooligans for MSD in Israel. It transformed authentic clinical oncology materials — including stained cancer cells, tumor projections, and specimen jars — into an art exhibition honoring oncologists and medical caregivers who fight cancer daily.
Hooligans, a Tel Aviv-based agency, created the campaign for MSD Israel. The named creative team includes chief creative director Sahar Lewenstein, chief art director Miriam Moshinsky, creative director Tal Manor, art director Yanay Halevy, and creative team members Lior Bergman and Ori Agoni, per records on Ads of the World and Clapboard.
The exhibition used authentic oncological materials curated over approximately one year. These included immunohistochemistry-stained cancer cells presented as portraits, three-dimensional projections of lung and breast tumors mapped onto classical statues, and specimen jars assembled into mosaics, as reported by AdHugger in January 2019.
The campaign targeted oncologists and medical caregivers in Israel rather than patients. MSD directed the exhibition at specialist physicians whose daily clinical work involves the same materials displayed, positioning the brand as a partner that recognises and honors the emotional and professional demands of cancer medicine.
"The Art of Besting Cancer" received a Clapboard Score of 77 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's creative originality in transforming oncology materials into art and its precise strategic targeting of medical caregivers, balanced against the absence of publicly verified performance metrics and its single-market experiential scope.
Most pharmaceutical oncology campaigns in competitive markets address prescribers through clinical evidence and efficacy data. MSD Israel's 2019 campaign used an art exhibition built from real clinical materials to speak to oncologists emotionally, a distinction noted in coverage by AdHugger and documented in the Ads of the World archive.
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