Rethink Breast Cancer's Save the Boobs Campaign

Part of the WEGO Health KnowledgeSite

Many health marketing communications professionals serve the needs of patients. However, many times, their voices are missing from conversations about the effectiveness of initiatives marketers launch to educate and inform the public. To remedy this problem, we have partnered with WEGO Health to provide patient perspectives on a variety of marketing communications efforts. Each Health Marketing Campaign Review features the voice of a WEGO Health Activist, one of social mediaʼs most active 10 percent. These individuals are passionate about helping others lead healthier lives. While these reviews are not comprehensive, they provide health marketers with a sense of how typical patients may react to their efforts.

An interesting and provocative health marketing campaign was launched in September, 2009 by the Rethink Breast Cancer charity to emphasize the leading cause of cancer death among 25 to 49-year-old women. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the charity devised a PSA campaign that would “leverage male lechery” to raise awareness. It was a bold, imaginative and controversial project that -- at least from Rethink's perspective -- achieved its primary goals.

With a tagline of “Save the Boobs,” Rethink’s PSA video commercial has a voluptuous, bikini-clad young woman openly ogled near a swimming pool. Sensuous background music is played and a voice-over announcer provides information and life-or-death early detection messaging. The campaign generated attention and controversy, including a substantial amount of free advertising through news coverage and Internet interest.

Did It Get My Attention? Stopping Power of Campaign:

WEGO Health Activist Alicia Staley

Alicia Staley is a 3 time cancer survivor committed to making a difference in the healthcare community. Ms Staley started the Staley Foundation in October 2007 as a way to work toward education, advocacy, and assistance for those affected by cancer as patients, caregivers, family, or friends. She shares her passion and enthusiasm for helping the cancer community by contributing to www.awesomecancersurivor.com and WEGO Health. With an engineering background and MBA/MS degrees in information systems, Alicia is working to find ways to bring different cancer communities together to leverage knowledge, solutions, and support in efficient, effective ways.

It certainly captured my attention, but for all the wrong reasons. I think PSAs like this take away from the message.
Using “Sex to Sell” public relations methods have worked for many products and organizations since the dawn of the advertising age. However, I think this kind of exploitation is not appropriate for breast cancer. It’s a very serious disease. This ad reinforces the notion that a woman isn’t a “woman” without her breasts and that a woman’s sexuality is directly tied to her chest.

I’ve seen both sides of this world. After a double mastectomy in January 2008, I made the difficult decision not to have reconstruction. This was the best decision I ever made. I’ve met countless women in the past 18 months that have serious regrets about their reconstructions. I call reconstruction the ugly little secret in the breast cancer community. When I see an ad like this, I get mad because it continues to push the notion that “sex sells” and “women are the sum of their breasts.” It enforces a mentality that helps push many women to get immediate reconstruction after a mastectomy so they can look “normal” again. For more on reconstruction issues, please click here.

Bottom Line: This ad touched a nerve. I got an email from another Health Activist asking when men’s cancers will be presented in the same way. That will never happen.

Activist's Additional Thoughts on Campaign:

I think I've said all I need to say about this campaign.

Who's Online