Pantene is asking Canadians to go to great lengths to help women fighting cancer. The Pantene Beautiful Lengths initiative, in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society, encourages women to donate their long, untreated hair to make wigs for cancer patients.
‘Pantene knows too well how much a woman’s hair means to her,’ says Stella Zhou, assistant brand manager, Pantene, P&G Canada, citing an American study which showed that 58% consider hair loss to be the worst side effect of chemotherapy, to the extent that some might refuse treatment.

The campaign came to Canada after overwhelming success in the U.S. over the past year: the American goal of 10,000 ponytails – at least six are needed to make one wig – was almost doubled to 18,000. The Canadian goal of 1,000 ponytails kicked off with P&G’s internal launch on Oct. 30, when employees and family members threw a ‘cutting party’ documented on Facebook. Celebrity spokesperson Hilary Swank also donated her ponytail, snipped live on Oprah Nov. 2.

Print and cinema advertising is by Grey NYC; in-store is by Toronto-based Array Marketing and Techno POS; and local PR is by Manning Selvage & Lee. Media partners include Cineplex, CanWest, Sun Media and Metro.