Motion Sickness, FINCH Win 2025 Cannes Grand Prix for Good

'The Best Place in the World to Have Herpes' has won the Lions Health and United Nations Grand Prix for Good and a Gold Lion in the Health and Wellness category.

The campaign, a collaboration between New Zealand agency Motion Sickness and Australian production company FINCH, won both the first Grand Prix and Gold Lion of the festival.

The unusual approach to reducing the herpes stigma -- framing it as a restoration of New Zealand national pride -- featured a global ranking system underpinned by live data.

Jury President David Ohana, United Nations Foundation CMO, said the winner used “unabashed” humour to tackle stigmatisation.

“Forget doom and gloom, there’s enough of that already to go around,” David said.

“Our 2025 awardee took a taboo topic and turned it on its head – showing that with a great strategy, a big, bold, crazy idea ( I can only imagine the pitch), and humour for days, that anything is possible."

Motion Sickness executive creative director Sam Stuchbury said being recognised on the world stage is a "surreal" feeling.

"We’re very happy to be taking creativity and herpes from New Zealand to the world stage,”  he said.

"It shows what can happen with brave clients, world-class-unconventional-creative thinking, and a ragtag group of New Zealand icons.”

The win follows a slew of award buzz for the indie, who took out Silvers for both NZ Creative Agency of the Year, and AU/NZ Boutique Agency of the Year at the Agency of The Year awards in Singapore last month.

The campaign itself also won Gold in the Entertainment Lotus category at AdFest 2025, and won four awards at the Clio Health 2025 awards.​

Alaina Luxmoore of the New Zealand Herpes Foundation said last year that the campaign's success will make a significant difference in the lives of the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders with a herpes diagnosis.

“While this campaign has been a lot of fun, it has also provoked a very important conversation in New Zealand," she said.

"Herpes is incredibly common across the world, but for too long it has been a reason for shame and stigma. By starting the conversation, and promoting education and acceptance over ignorance and fear -- people with a herpes diagnosis know they are safe and accepted in New Zealand."

Sam Stuchbury previously told LBB that the response to the campaign was overwhelmingly positive.

"I think because it isn’t addressed globally, people genuinely didn’t realise the numbers --  80% of New Zealanders will contract the virus," he said.

"A lot of people who live with herpes were really happy with the campaign, which stressed information positively and with humour. The foundation was overwhelmed with emails and text messages from people who had recently been diagnosed with herpes who thought their lives were over. They thought they'd have to finish their relationships -- then they saw the campaign and could talk about it."