The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023–2024
Eurofarma's Scrolling Therapy turns feed-scrolling into Parkinson's facial exercise
A free app makes facial gestures control your social feed, so Parkinson's patients exercise while scrolling — Cannes Pharma GP, One Show Best of Pharma.
Eurofarma · Dentsu Creative
What it had to solve
Parkinson's can stiffen facial muscles, and patients are prescribed facial exercises — but doing them in a mirror is tedious and easily skipped. People meanwhile spend about 2.5 hours a day scrolling social feeds, so Eurofarma wanted a complementary therapy patients would actually keep doing.
How it works
Parkinson's disease can make the face rigid — a symptom called facial masking that is distressing for patients and families alike. Doctors prescribe facial exercises, but asking patients to do repetitions in a mirror is a hard sell, and most skip them.
Eurofarma and Dentsu Creative found a habit patients already had: about 2.5 hours a day of scrolling social feeds. They built Scrolling Therapy, a free app whose facial-recognition technology turns the prescribed exercises into the gestures that control the phone — smile, frown, or raise your eyebrows to move through Facebook and Instagram, with real-time feedback showing the face working.
The app launched in April 2023 in three languages across ten Latin American countries, with the support of 45,128 doctors and Parkinson's associations in Brazil and the US. The campaign reached more than a billion impressions and held an 88% engagement rate with the routine.
Juries agreed the idea mattered: Scrolling Therapy won the Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix in June 2023, took Best of Pharma at The One Show 2024, and picked up 19 One Show nominations plus Webby and Anthem recognition — all for a free tool built for 8.5 million patients.
Why it lands
- It attached treatment to an existing, unavoidable habit — scrolling — instead of asking patients to add a new chore to their day.
- Facial recognition turned prescribed exercises into the app's control system, so the therapy is invisible: using social media is the exercise.
- Real-time feedback and an 88% engagement rate showed the routine stuck, addressing the adherence problem that defeats most therapy apps.
- Free global availability and backing from Parkinson's associations turned a pharma marketing project into public health infrastructure.
What it did
The launch generated over 1 billion impressions with an 88% engagement rate with the therapy routine. It won the Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix (June 2023) and the One Show 2024 Best of Pharma, drew 19 One Show nominations, and stayed free for all of the world's 8.5 million Parkinson's patients.
What you can take
Don't ask patients to add therapy to their day — attach it to a habit they already have: turn a time drain such as scrolling into the treatment, and adherence comes from the activity itself.
Since then
Scrolling Therapy stayed freely available worldwide on Google Play and the App Store in English, Portuguese and Spanish after its April 2023 launch. It won the Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix, the One Show 2024 Best of Pharma Pencil, and additional Webby, Anthem and SXSW recognition, and it became a frequently cited example of turning screen time into patient care rather than an interruption of it.
Sources
- Scrolling Therapy — Dentsu work
- App for patients with Parkinson's wins Cannes Lions Pharma Grand Prix
- Marcel Paris wins Best of Show at The One Show 2024
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