One Minute Brief - A Visit from Dr. Nicholas

This week, following a great recommendation of a friend in the creative space, I looked into the One Minute Briefs by the Bank of Creativity.

The idea behind the initiative is to promote brands and causes via social media by challenging their creative community to respond to daily advertising briefs with instinctive ideas and reward the best entries. The creatives are encouraged to submit as many entries as they like whether scribbles, notes sketches or mock ups but it is all about having the quickest idea.

I had to make an 'X' (Twitter) account to tackle today's One Minute Brief which was to create a poster, poem, pun, etc. "to promote that there's no time like the present and encourage people to check their balls this Christmas" in aid of the Robin Cancer Trust and Testicular Cancer. They asked for it to be fun but to respect the seriousness of the message behind it. Testicular Cancer is 96% curable if caught early but signs & symptoms are often ignored due to embarrassment. The mission is to raise awareness of the signs & symptoms, encourage monthly self-checks and to break down the stigma of talking about balls.

The purpose of the exercise creatively is to thinking on your feet, within a minute, of how you would tackle a brief instinctively without judgement of your own capabilities. I will outline below how I went about it and then show the final piece!

First, I watched the videos and the depictions on the infographic to get better acquainted with what self-checks entails so I can incorporate it with my idea. I also read the inspiring story included in the brief behind the Robin Trust to get myself quickly situated with the client. My mind instinctively went to "poem" when reading the prompt and, of course, I thought the classic "Visit from St Nicholas" is always fun, Christmassy, well-known and easy to play around with. Upon re-reading the poem, I realised it was definitely filled with pun-worthy phrases and words as the brief suggested.

In the minute I spent preparing this, I reflected on the delicate balance that would be needed to create a fun, light campaign that doesn't make light of a serious topic. What I created needed to encourage self-checks, outline the basics, mention symptoms and tackle the notion of embarrassment around them by speaking direct and plainly. I decided to recount a narrative of someone named Nicholas doing a simple self-check on the night before Christmas.

The brief mentioned puns and the existing campaign around it (#JingleBalls and the depiction of testicles as fruit in the infographic) and so I let this guide me in terms of the tone and appropriateness of puns I used in my poem. I also included some of the double-entendres in the original material for an additional fun and humorous elements. Please see the final poem below!

A Visit from Dr. Nicholas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when I stepped out the bath

And the smell of nut roast filled the house in its path

My sugarplums were relaxed and hanging with care

The perfect time to check if all's well down there

One at a time with both hands I do roll

While one's slightly larger, nothing wrong to behold

No Lump, no Hardness, nor Swelling or Pain,

No Heaviness, nor anything unusual for me remains.

With a sigh of relief, not a symptom in sight

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

It is obviously much shorter than the original but I felt this was appropriate for it to adhere to the rules behind One Minute Brief (make something quick!) but also to reflect how quick and easy it is to just check monthly when you have a second. To make the poem reference recognisable still, I included some famous phrases from the original poem (hopefully you can spot where I subbed the reindeer names for symptoms!). I also felt like more appropriate for the ending to be positive to avoid discouraging self-checking due to a fear factor.

So there we have it! - a light, fun and fastly-done poem about self-checking for testicular cancer this Christmas. Let's see if I win anything!