Save Your Ass - Mottumars | Clapboard Ad Archive
Save Your Ass from Mottumars, developed by Brandenburg for the Icelandic Cancer Society, reframes public interest marketing in the Year 2015 with infectious wit by positioning male colon cancer awareness as a lively, visible, and communal necessity. Launching each March to coincide with Iceland’s national men’s health month—a local twist on Movember—the campaign shuns textbook seriousness in favor of explosive entertainment: a handpicked ensemble of renowned Icelandic actors, instantly recognizable to local audiences, quite literally dance their asses off as choreographed spectacle takes center stage. Pivoting on what Clapboard’s taxonomy codifies as FORMAT#9—Symbolize the Benefit, the creative strategy uses playful exaggeration and symbolic emphasis (a gleeful focus on the actor’s backsides) to land a health message that’s usually burdened by stigma and passivity. Instead of instructing men to get checked, Save Your Ass turns the call to action into a rallying cultural moment—anchored by the exuberant soundtrack of Hossa Hossa by Amabadama—making colon health feel not just approachable but nearly celebratory. The agency’s choice to cast a cross-section of the nation’s acting elite, backed by voluntary contributions across the entire production ecosystem, lends the campaign authenticity and a sense of national project—one that taps pride and participation rather than guilt or fear. The visual world, pulsing with the architecture of Reykjavik’s most iconic public venues, further roots the campaign in a shared Icelandic identity, ensuring that the content resonates locally while echoing the universal challenge of men’s health. By generating public dialogue, leveraging over 130,000 views, and symbolically recasting the act of screening as something to dance for—not hide from—the campaign unpicks the habitual reluctance surrounding preventive health with humor and populist charisma, making the benefit of early detection impossible to ignore. Clapboard rates this 77/100. With Save Your Ass, the category learns that memorable behavioral change in public service rarely travels via the straightest line, especially when crafted with the cultural precision and irreverence that the Symbolize the Benefit approach can unlock.
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