From embarrassment
to empowerment

THE CHALLENGE

Bowel cancer screening rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians are critically low. Barriers include shame, fear of a bad result, distrust of government processes and a cultural reluctance, particularly among men, to engage with health at all. The campaign needed to cut through without reinforcing any of those barriers.

THE CULTURAL TRUTH

There’s no shame in bowel cancer.

Bowel cancer is not talked about in community. It is a complex topic layered with shame. But community members already understand lived experience, humour and storytelling. The instinct was not the problem. The approach was.

EXECUTION

Think HQ worked closely with community throughout, including artist Jason Tamiru and comedian Kevin Kropinyeri, one of Australia's most loved Aboriginal comedians. Kevin's stand-up humour reframes the test as a relief rather than a source of shame and is rooted in one of his own jokes. Delivered in genuine community voice, from brief to final cut.

CHANGING THE NARRATIVE

By working with community rather than talking at it, the campaign shifts the conversation from embarrassment to empowerment. Humour opened the door to a message that conventional health communication could not land, turning a shame job into something people could laugh at, share and act on.