You mean the #pinkwashing drill bits WEREN'T a hoax?

Look, we've all been burned by internet hoaxes. So when something seems too ridiculous to be true, we can only assume it's someone's idea of a joke.

That's what I assumed when I saw this #doingourbit pinkwashing campaign trending. It's a about a drilling services company that is distributing pink drill bits to customers to "raise awareness" about breast cancer.

From EcoWatch:

Susan G. Komen, the largest breast cancer organization in America with more than 100,000 volunteers and partnerships in more than 50 countries, has teamed up with Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oilfield service companies with employees in more than 80 countries. Susan G. Komen hands out pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness, and Baker Hughes fracks. So, there you have it: a pink, fracking, drill head.

The post goes on to talk about how fracking causes cancer. Here's some more info on that.

I was still skeptical, so I went to the Baker-Hughes site. Here's their press release:

Last October, during National Breast Cancer Awareness month, Baker Hughes distributed 500 pink drill bits to customers as part of its "Doing Our Bit for the Cure" campaign. This year, the company will paint and distribute a total of 1,000 pink drill bits worldwide. The pink bits serve as a reminder of the importance of supporting research, treatment, screening, and education to help find the cures for this disease, which claims a life every 60 seconds.

And here's their page at Komen.

And here is an actual quote from an industry magazine:

“Our hope is from the water cooler to the rig site to the coffee shop to everywhere, someone gets this information to their spouses, their girlfriends, their daughters so we can create awareness and end this disease forever,” said Bill Debo, director of operations for U.S. land drill bits at Baker Hughes.

Still rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I have Tweeted at both parties asking for confirmation. But in this case, it seems that the truth of pinkwashing is stranger than fiction.

Topless Female Trampolining World Championships

This is a teaser for British breast cancer prevention charity Coppafeel's upcoming campaign for male cancer awareness, to be launched September 12.



I'm a little wary of this one. It seems as if they are trying to do a Borat type thing with the Lars character, and the video certainly takes the term "teaser" literally.

But there has been so much debate about the sexualization of women's breasts in the name of the women's breast cancer cause. Isn't it kind of telling that women's breasts are also sexualized in the name of men's cancer too? It's like a microcosm of advertising, right there: if you want to reach women, show women's bodies; if you want to reach (straight) men...

Although I do appreciate the humour in the campaign Facebook page. How do you think my wife and friends will respond when they see "Tom liked Topless Female Trampolining World Championships"?

That humour — plus what I have seen from Coppafeel so far —gives me hope that this campaign will prove to be more than another lazy use of sex in cause marketing.

Part Two of this post can be found on Osocio.

Breasts exploited in the name of cancer (again) #FdAdFriday

The technology is interesting, if it actually works as intended.

Poster before thermoactivation.

"Breast lumps are often discovered by womens partners. As a part of communication launching Breast Unit Prague (clinique for preventing and curing breast cancer) we produced this poster targeting men in male areas. When they placed their hands on the poster a pair of breasts would appear. Headline: ‘Touch them to ensure that they don’t disappear.’"

Poster thermoactivated.

While cause marketers like "Coppafeel,"  "Feel Your Boobies" and "Self Chec" promote self-screening for lumps in humorous and playfully sexy ways, this one seems more lecherous and objectifying. (Even though the creative team of Tereza Sverakova, Lauren van Aswegen and Igor Paleta seems to include at least one women.) And I don't know what it's like on the streets of Prague, but I wouldn't want to be seen feeling up a poster in public. Especially not a cancer campaign.

Ummm... what "thermoactivated" that line below the hands?

Let's hope this ad wasn't literally "F'd"...

Campaign by Leagas Delaney Prague, Czech Republic
Via I Believe in Advertising

F'd Ad Fridays: iBoob

This isn't the first time someone has marketed breast-enhanced iPhone cases. But at least it's for a cause.

John sent me a post by iphoneincanada, which explains:

"The 'Breastie' iPhone case has the back part shaped like a breast, which is supposed to enable a better ‘grip’. Cases are available in black or pink and retail for $20. Sounds like this is a great cause–except users will look like creeps out in public."

 I wonder when the testicular cancer model is coming out?

Pink Stink: Susan G. Komen for the Cure gets political

Update: Jezebel reports (Feb 3) that Komen has reinstated funding to Planned Parenthood.

 Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the most powerful brand in the world involved in fundraising for breast cancer prevention and research, has had its share of problems.

There was "Buckets for The Cure" — remember that?

Putting their brand, indiscriminately, on any retail item (regardless of whether it was healthy or not) gave rise to the pinkwashing backlash. Not only was the appropriateness of the various cobrandings questioned by many, but also the efficacy of the fundraising and their aggressive trademark practices.

The last straw, for me, was when they launched their own line of perfume which Breast Cancer Action claimed contains cancer-causing compounds.

Increasingly, this organization seems to operate like any big brand, with a ruthless desire to grow its influence, generate revenue, and eliminate competition. Is that really what cause marketing is supposed to be about?

Their response:

"Research doesn’t come cheap. We need to raise money, and we’re not apologetic about it,” [spokesperson Leslie] Aun said. Komen, founded in 1982, has contributed $685 million to breast cancer research and $1.3 billion to community programs that help with mammograms, transportation and other needs, Aun said. Komen would love not to have to do marketing, but that simply is not realistic, she said. 

“We don’t think there’s enough pink. We’re able to make those investments in research because of programs like that.”

But much of Komen's credibility as a serious champion of women's health collapsed this week when it was learned that they decided to stop funding breast screening for low-income women through Planned Parenthood.

The politics are ugly. The anti-abortion lobby in the United States has been trying to shut down planned parenthood for the past couple of years, convincing governments to defund its health operations because they include the provision of abortions (in addition to birth control and many other community health services).

According to the Washington Post, two women can be credited with Komen going political and joining the ranks of the American pro-life movement. Komen's Vice President for Policy for the past year, Karen Handel, is a politician who made a run at the Governorship of Georgia on an anti-abortion ticket. And then there's Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest, who is responsible for Planned Parenthood being investigated by the Energy and Commerce Committee — giving Komen the excuse to defund.

Oh, and what's this?

"Immediately after hearing the news of the Komen Foundation’s decision to withdraw its funding from Planned Parenthood, breast cancer survivor Dr. Charmaine Yoest registered 'Team Life' and pledged to rejoin the Global Race for the Cure in Washington, D.C. on June 2, 2012. 

'The Komen Foundation’s decision to disassociate itself from the scandal-ridden abortion provider should be applauded and encouraged by pro-life women across the country,' said Dr. Yoest."

This decision by Komen to firmly entrench itself in the politics of reproductive choice will be a fateful one. It will certainly lead to more support by those who side with the decision. But what about the millions of "mainstream" supporters — including many women's health groups — who were happily buying pink and doing fundraising as an apolitical feel-good move? Do they really want to have to choose sides?

The backlash has already begun.

There is an interesting result of all the media frenzy, though. Gothamist reports that through online networking alone, Planned Parenthood was able to raise $650,000 (the number keeps going up) in private donations in just 24 hours. Last year, Komen's funding was $680,000.

With government funding for not-for-profits on the decline anyway, Planned Parenthood may want to look to social media fundraising as the way of the future.

UPDATE: Mashable reports that Komen has also pissed off the hacker community:

Ouch.

Can a PSA nightie make cancer prevention sexy?

When it comes to breast cancer prevention in social marketing, there is a great generational divide. On one side, you have older women in the high-risk age group who prefer the more visionary "pink" approach. On the other are (usually) younger women, who react to cancer prevention as part of protecting and nurturing their sexuality. (See "I love boobies", "Boobyball", etc.)

The Feel Your Boobies Foundation definitely falls into the latter camp. Founded by a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 33, it uses sexualized humour to encourage regular self- and partner-assisted examination.

Released juts in time for October is this cheeky cami set. It comes with the disclaimer, "We do not take responsibility for anyone who wears this tank top for anything other than sleeping :-)"

What do you think of this approach? Is it appropriate? Is it helpful? Or is it just harmless cause-branded fun?

Busting out the double entendres for breast cancer

I got word last weekend from MTV Canada's Aliya Jasmine Sovani, better known to the world as the star of last year's controversial and popular "Save The Boobs" video, that this year's promo video is out.

Interestingly, after last year's swimsuit edition provoked controversy over the sexualization of breast cancer, this year the Boobyball crew decided to take a more humorous approach to promoting their Rethink Breast Cancer charity party:



Okay, so it's pretty goofy. But at least they had some fun with the send-up of 70s porn.

Unfortunately, as of this writing, the video is still unavailable on YouTube. I can only imagine that MTV, after seeing diverse postings of last year's video getting hundreds of thousands of hits, decided that all that traffic should be directed to their corporate site.

The problem is, the video is not easy to share or embed. This will inevitably lead to far fewer views, and far less awareness for this year's event.

I Brake... I mean "Break"... for Breast Health

Today, Acart celebrated survival and hope... for women who have lived through breast cancer.

Our "Breaks for Breast Cancer" event, in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Network, raised over $800 to help survivors across Canada. It's a small event, but as part of a national movement, every dollar matters.

To give this fundraising effort legs, we also produced our own book of recipes. "Tidbits" shares some closely-guarded heirloom dessert recipes — including my mom's WWII-era "wacky cake", which is vegan from before vegan was on the radar.

You can get your own copy of Tidbits for a minimum $5 donation to CBCN. We don't have any e-commerce available, but if you're in Ottawa you can pick one up at Acart reception.  Otherwise, you may want to befriend an Acartian willing to spot you a fin + postage!

Find our more about this event, and meet the people behind it, at Acart's Corporate Blog.

Cause marketing and the mother of all media

Caught this picture yesterday on Copyranter:

My immediate thought was, "important message, bad media placements".

Yessir, I'm jaded. But that's because, as an adman, I take the power of boobs very seriously. In the commercial world, as part of the lazy creative's holy trinity of "boobs babies and bowsers", they are used indiscriminately to sell clothing, food, cars, perfumes—you name it. Back in the '60s, one psychiatrist even saw "Mother McDonald's ample bosom" in the famous golden arches.

Reading my blog posts here and on Osocio, you may have the impression I have boobies on the brain. I do. But — man or woman, gay or straight — you do too. It's called being a mammal.

What I really want to talk about here, though, is the use of breasts in social and cause marketing. There are basically two ways to harness their power for good...

You can either cynically use them as borrowed interest, as PeTA does:

Or you can try to be relevant, by raising awareness of an issue that is actually involved with the body parts:

(That second one reminds women to get a breast exam)


Mammaries as media are too important and powerful to be overused or abused in marketing, even for a good cause. And that's my issue with the shirt/walking ad at the top of this post.

First of all, if you're going to come to a job interview wearing a novelty t-shirt, you had better be looking for a digital marketing position, and the only acceptable theme is old-school science fiction. Second, like a "my eyes are up here" shirt, it actually defeats its purpose by attracting attention to the areas that aren't supposed to matter. It's like sexual harassment entrapment.

I realize that the shirt proves an important point. I just don't think it's the right one.

What do you think?

What's next? Anti-diabetes poutine?

KFC has provoked cries of hypocrisy over its latest corporate social responsibility campaign, Buckets for the Cure.



The basic deal is that 50¢ from every special pink bucket will go to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an important charity in the fight against breast cancer. With a minimum $1,000,000 donation, and over $2,800,000 raised so far, this represents the single largest donation Komen will ever have received.

That's the good news. The campaign Facebook page gives the lunchbag letdown that corporately, KFC operators have already made a 50¢ donation for every pink bucket they bought, and that your purchases of pink chicken buckets make no difference. (Even though you are encouraged to donate directly.)

More disturbing is the menu at the top of the page:



That's right. The Double Down. Perhaps the greasiest breakthrough in fast food innovation since gravy pizza. But I've already blogged about that. Just in case you're wondering about how it's being marketed:



This rant, though, is more about pinkwashing. Borrowed from the popular term "greenwashing", which describes a misleading environmental stewardship campaign, pinkwashing is the health version. Specifically for breast cancer.

How pinkwashed is this campaign?

From the Komen site:

Many studies have linked body weight to breast cancer risk. However, weight affects risk for pre and postmenopausal women differently. Before menopause, being overweight appears to decrease a woman's risk of getting breast cancer. After menopause, however, being overweight increases the risk by 30 to 60 percent. This relationship can be explained mainly by the fact that fat tissue contains an enzyme called aromatase. This enzyme converts hormones called androgens (made mostly in the adrenal glands) to estrogens, and this extra estrogen can increase breast cancer risk. Learn more about estrogen and breast cancer risk.

Yoiks! Perhaps that chicken should come with an age restriction.

But cynicism aside, I realize how important a big contribution like this is in the fight against cancer. It's just unfortunate that it's coming in parallel with a move towards serving less and less healthy food. It has actually led to some pretty harsh criticism and satire aimed at Komen.

And speaking of health causes, our iheartmom.ca campaign for women's heart health is now in week 2. Please join Joannie Rochette and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute to raise money and awareness to fight heart disease — the #1 killer of women in North America.

"My eyes are up here"

Regular readers know that cancer awareness and prevention social marketing is a topic close to my heart. So when I caught this adorably simple Belgian campaign on Osocio's Facebook fanpage, I just had to post it here:



As part of the 2010 outreach for the Campagne de dépistage du cancer du sein en Communauté française de Belgique, it targets older women, and includes print collateral and a postcard campaign for loved ones:



Nice, witty approach that doesn't stray into shock or prurience. And it's almost hypnotic...