Cancer Support Community reroutes the earworm '867-5309' to a real cancer helpline

For more than forty years, Tommy Tutone's 1981 hit '867-5309/Jenny' has kept a fictional phone number lodged in the public brain. Cancer Support Community's insight was that such a number should do some real work: anyone impacted by cancer should be able to dial it and immediately reach people trained to help.

The creative move was almost mechanical. Klick Health arranged for 272-867-5309 — the 272 area code spells CSC for Cancer Support Community on a phone keypad — to ring the organization's free, confidential national helpline, where specially trained staff answer at no cost. Tommy Heath of Tommy Tutone endorsed the repurposing of the song he made famous.

The campaign was then activated across radio, streaming, PR and social, turning a forty-year-old earworm into an easily remembered public-health number. Cancer Support Community says its helpline already received more than 20,000 calls a year; the campaign's job was to make the line the first place people think to call.

The results were unusually direct for a piece of cultural recycling: helpline calls increased by 216% in one week, and the campaign generated billions of earned media impressions. It won a Silver Lion at the 2026 Cannes Lions in Entertainment Lions for Music (licensed/adapted music) and earned further shortlist recognition across health, direct, media and audio categories.