Havas Chicago certainly knows how to stop pedestrians in their tracks with its office-window installations for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Last October it set up peep-show windows, but the peepers got a bit of a shock when they looked inside. This year’s effort, which launched Tuesday and runs through the end of the month, features a Plexiglass room in the lobby filled with 3-foot boob balloons—latex spheres painted to look like breasts.
Brightly colored window decals invite passersby to come inside at 36 E. Grand Avenue and just have a good old time playing with them.
Of all our body parts, we humans objectify breasts as the most inherently feminine, right? They serve a utilitarian purpose, sure, but they’re also soft and sexy and men don’t (typically) have them.
But what happens when you undergo a double mastectomy to beat cancer, and then you opt—as nearly 58 percent of women do—not to have breast reconstruction surgery? Are you somehow less feminine? The answer is obviously a resounding no, and that’s what a new ad campaign from gender-neutral underwear company Play Out is looking to communicate.
The campaign features three proudly breastless women—Emily Jensen, Jodi Jaecks and Melly Testa. Play Out partnered on the campaign with support group FlatTopper Pride, which Jensen founded.
“Our dear friend Emily Jensen, who started FlatTopper Pride, was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 31 years old,” Abby Sugar, Play Out co-founder and designer tells AdFreak. “After having a double mastectomy, Emily shared photos of herself on Facebook, on vacation, topless and flat. These were very powerful, strong images, and even though we knew Emily as a dear friend, we didn’t know how much she went through daily as a breast cancer survivor. Not only that, but as a person who stood out against society’s expectations of feminine beauty and the dominant narrative of reconstruction after mastectomy.”
Sugar adds: “We wanted to help her not only show that you can be yourself, no matter your gender presentation, but get the word out about FlatTopper Pride, a space for LGBT people dealing with breast cancer and breast removal to find support. Emily, Jodi and Melly all have unique stories about their treatments and their experiences post-mastectomies. Emily brought Jodi in to tell her story, and introduced us to Melly here on the East Coast. We were extremely inspired by all of them.”
Play Out also points to FlatTopper Pride, where the women featured share their stories.
DDB has uploaded what it claims is the first fake erotic video on Pornhub. The video starts off porny and then morphs into a (still NSFW) PSA from the Alcázar Gynecology Institute, showing men how to perform a breast exam on their wives or girlfriends.
Traditional ads targeting women simply aren’t working, DDB says. And the agency points out that the potential reach of this approach is impressive—given Pornhub’s sizable audience and the fast that 94.73 percent of men watch porn online, according to research. (What portion of those don’t mind being tricked into watching else is another matter.)
And of course, there’s the further problem that this campaign blatantly sexualizes breast cancer, which is an approach many cancer activists despise.
Check out the case study below, which is NSFW. What do you think of the strategy here?
CREDITS Client: Alcázar Gynecology Institute Agency: DDB, La Paz, Bolivia Co-founder & CCO: Henry Medina Co-founder & CEO: Emanuelle Medina Head of Art: Christian Morales Copywriter: Henry Medina Producer Company: Rebeca Director: Miqy de la Barra Executive Producer: Alejandro Noriega Music & Sound Company: Vinylo Sound Music & Sound Designer: Ricardo Núñez
Ask anyone you know how they feel about boobs, and I’m pretty sure it will be positive. Indeed, you’d have a hard time finding anyone hesitant to sing their praises.
Below is a fun series of ads from DDB Singapore timed to Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. They’ll hit close to home for anyone who uses social media on the regular, and happens to have breasts, or knows anyone who has them (and wants them to be healthy). The familiar logos have been redesigned to anatomically pay homage to breasts and remind you to perform an exam—on yourself, or someone you care about—as frequently as you check your social feeds.
The ads, for the Breast Cancer Foundation, also point to an online petition urging social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to actually change their logos temporarily for the cause. So, check out the ads below, and consider a screening so you can live longer to keep liking and faving.
Here's something I never thought I'd say: I just got weepy listening to "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls.
In an incredibly touching tribute to the group's frontwoman, Chrissy Amphlett, some of Australia's top singers have recorded a largely a capella version for a video encouraging women to self-examine their breasts for lumps.
Amphlett, one of the most shockingly sexual pop artists of the 1990s, died from breast cancer on April 21, 2013. According to Billboard, an ultrasound and mammogram initially missed the cancer, which Amphlett ended up finding on her own through self-examination.
Friends say her dying wish was that her 1990 hit song could become a reminder for all women to check themselves regularly for lumps and other signs of breast cancer. So Australian advocacy group Cancer Council NSW (New South Wales) worked with Amphlett's widower and supporters to create the beautiful rendition below.
The singers are Connie Mitchell, Deborah Conway, Kate Cerebrano, Katie Noonan, Little Pattie, Megan Washington, Olivia Newton-John, Sarah Blasko, Sarah McLeod and Suze DeMarchi. You can watch interviews with each of them on Amphlett's YouTube channel.
"It is a song that celebrates female sexuality like no other. Like Chrissy, it is bold, brave and brassy," the group says in its video summary. "It rocked our world. And when Chrissy developed breast cancer, it was a song she wanted to become an anthem for spreading awareness about the importance of touching ourselves for early detection of the disease."
Note: The video below ends on a scene that might be NSFW. But you really shouldn't let that stop you from watching it.
Pancreatic Cancer Action has issued a thoughtful, heartfelt defense of its controversial U.K. awareness campaign that shows sufferers saying they wish they had other types of cancer with higher survival rates.
One print ad in the series uses a quote from 24-year-old pancreatic cancer patient Kerry Harvey—"I wish I had breast cancer"—as its headline and notes that the survival rate is only 3 percent, the lowest among all 22 common cancers.
"With a limited budget, it was vital that the advert would stand out and provoke thought and initiate discussion among members of the public, the media and influencers," PCA chief executive Ali Stunt writes in the Daily Mail. Stunt says the work, from Team Darwin, "reflects the genuine insight of many pancreatic cancer patients upon diagnosis, and how it feels to be diagnosed with a disease that leaves you with no hope at all."
The effort, which includes a video that focuses on the troubled faces and intense emotions of those diagnosed with the disease, has drawn significant fire:
• Breast Cancer Campaign CEO Delyth Morgan says she was "shocked and saddened" by the initiative. "While the intention of the campaign is great, the adverts are hugely upsetting and incredibly insensitive and divisive."
• Breakthrough Breast Cancer chief Chris Askew said his organization would "strongly dispute any message which suggests that one type of cancer is preferable to another," adding, "I've yet to meet a man or woman with breast cancer who would consider themselves in any way fortunate to have received a diagnosis."
• Writing on cause-marketing blog Osocio, Reuben Turner, whose grandfather died of pancreatic cancer, calls the ads "the last resort of the desperate," though he concedes this: "Maybe that's the point. Maybe these people are desperate. Desperate for attention. Desperate for funds. Desperate for a cure."
PCA executive Stunt has known such desperation firsthand: "When faced with a 3 percent chance of surviving more than five years, it is not unreasonable to wish for a cancer with a better survival rate. This is exactly how I felt when I was diagnosed with the disease in 2007."
"The attention this campaign has received," she adds, "has also paved the way for a symptoms-awareness campaign that we launched on the London Tube this week. Our aim is to save lives, and that is achieved by early diagnosis, which come from creating awareness wherever and whichever way we can."
The writer, Emma Gilbey Keller, had focused on the Twitter account and blog of Lisa Bonchek Adams, a mother of three who is being treated for stage four breast cancer.
If tits could tweet, they'd probably have a lot to say; but since they can't, they'll have to settle for the next best thing: a tweeting bra. OgilvyOne Athens has created a bra that tweets every time it's unclasped, sending a titillating notification to a special Twitter feed. Greek actress Maria Bakodimou will wear the bra for two weeks, letting the world know each time the twins are unleashed. The tweets then direct people to the Nestlé Fitness website, where they can get tips on how to do a monthly self-exam. As you can imagine, the bra currently tweets a lot in Greek, but it contends that self-exams are still Greek to many women. Maybe next time they can team up with Durex's Fundawear team and add some electric tingles to the bra that can be remotely controlled by response tweets. C'mon, anything goes in the name of awareness! Via Mashable.
Here's a simple, clever and well-executed idea from our friends in Iceland. Agency Brandenburg partnered with the Icelandic Cancer Society to paint a looping highway ramp pink in celebration of Cancer Awareness Month. While only truly visible from the air, the bright pink street paint was still quite attention-grabbing for Reykjavík motorists, as you can see in the case study video below.
Tutu Project est une initiative dans le but de soulever des fonds pour la Carey Foundation qui se consacre au cancer du sein. L’homme ici pris en photo en tutu dans divers endroits, est une personne qui a soutenu et accompagné sa femme dans la maladie il y a quelques années. Plus d’images dans la suite de l’article.
THE ORIGINAL?
Breast Cancer Awareness / Field Marketing – 2005
Source : Cannes GOLD LION
Agency : DDB Brussels (Belgium)
LESS ORIGINAL
Breast Cancer Awareness / Ambient – 2011
Source : Adsoftheworld
Agency : Bolero, Fortaleza (Brazil)
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