BARMER, one of the leading German health insurance providers, stands to defend its claim to be the most socially progressive among its competitors. Equality in terms of gender and sexual orientation is known to be one of its core values. Gender equality for a public health insurance however is not only a social matter but even more so, a medical one. The provided briefing was to boldly enter the public debate with a socially and medically relevant, gender-related campaign – with the clear goals of challenging opinions and sparking a change of mind within the general public, as well as strengthening BARMER’s progressive position.

“Women do not deserve equal treatment!”

What at first seems to be an absurd and vulgar comment to put out these days, is actually true, speaking in medical terms. This is because equally good medical treatment is a different treatment for each gender. BARMER made use of that double meaning launching a deliberately provocative campaign, to gain both public and professional attention for the crucial topic of gender sensitive medicine. The main element of the campaign became a range of seemingly mysogynic and reactionary statements which only revealed their true meaning at second glance, giving the underlying message the needed urgence.

One significant strategic consideration in the planning of this campaign derived from the fact that BARMER is the first major player in the German health sector to claim the chosen topic. A valuable advantage in sharpening BARMERs progressive role. Due to the universal relevance of gender sensitive medicine and the stated goal to enter the public debate, the campaign was targeted to the broad public (16–35 yrs. for online, 16–65 yrs. for OOH). Additionally, some parts of the campaign were especially designed to address healthcare professionals, so that a professional debate around the topic would drive a change in perception as well.

The first part of the execution consisted of bold and colorful statement-billboards and posters with German headlines like: “The equal treatment of men and women must stop” which were distributed all over Germany. They were accompanied by social media posts that used a design equally as bold. Both were followed by the hero piece of the campaign, released on all social platforms: a one minute upbeat film in which two celebrity TV hosts demonstrated the necessity of gender sensitive medicine. In two additional films, the same hosts did a deep dive into the confusing symptoms and treatment options for heart attacks in women and breast cancer in men. After awareness was successfully raised with the kick-off of the 8-week-long campaign, more informative and educational content-pieces on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were to follow. All of the above was supported by a landing page with various in-depth articles about gender-sensitive medicine.

With a total of 86.4 million impressions, 432k interactions and 16.3 million video views, the campaign successfully generated awareness for and informed the public about gender sensitive medicine. The topic was not only broadly covered by German media in the aftermath of the campaign but even made it onto the agenda of BARMER’s biggest competitors. BARMER effectively sparked a long-overdue public discourse, hopefully followed by a change of mind that saves lives.