#Can­nes­Lions2022: Wal­greens buys in­to clin­i­cal tri­als as cre­ative team takes a new post-Covid tone

CANNES — A few years ago, the WPP Wal­greens team tout­ed Dori­tos and last-minute Hal­loween can­dy as a way to get peo­ple to the phar­ma­cy chain. Then the pan­dem­ic hit, and every­thing changed.

More than 30 mil­lion Amer­i­cans have cho­sen a lo­cal Wal­greens to get their Covid-19 shots. As a re­sult, the com­pa­ny is tak­ing a new cre­ative tone — and dip­ping its toes in­to clin­i­cal tri­al ser­vices.

“This isn’t about get­ting Hal­loween can­dy,” Mel Routhi­er, chief cre­ative of­fi­cer of the WPP Wal­greens team, said in a pan­el at this year’s Cannes Li­ons ad­ver­tis­ing cre­ativ­i­ty fes­ti­val. “That tone is gone.”

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