The recent Facebook bra color campaign has certainly caused a fascinating stir. As an awareness-raising effort for breast cancer, women posted a single-word status update on their facebook page, indicating the color of their bra, and quietly passed the message along exclusively to other women. Some think it’s genius, others take offense. What does it all mean?
I have a hard time finding fault in it. In the world of causes, publicity is everything. Publicists talk about the ideal campaigns as having ‘sex appeal.’ Well, breast cancer has certainly cornered that market, for better or worse. But some are cautious to offer praise, as evidenced by recent blog posts on the topic. They are plentiful but here and there are a couple examples. Some feel that breast cancer is too serious an issue to play around with in Facebook ‘games.’ Maybe so. Some assert that the bra game includes no perspective on the real issue. Perhaps not.
But awareness has to start somewhere. That said, by now anybody who isn’t already aware of breast cancer probably isn’t going to be reached no matter what campaigns we try. So what’s the point then, if everybody who can be reached already knows? Can it provide for deeper enlightenment as time goes on? Will it encourage people to support efforts financially? Those are good things right? Does it matter if that support came from a person who really understands breast cancer, or if it comes from someone who was intrigued by learning the color of an acquaintence’s bra? Perhaps the latter source isn’t prompted by the ideal kind of inspiration, but isn’t it still a worthy contribution to the cause?
As a person who wrote a book about living with another chronic illness, I can assure you that not everybody is going to understand the full perspective of what it means to be sick or have illness in your family. In fact, many people won’t, even when they try hard. It’s a fact of life that, unless a person has personally been impacted by disease as a patient or loved one, they simply can not understand it fully, and even then it’s a challenge. But that’s not their fault. It’s not a flaw. Rather, it is a blessing because it means they are healthy and fortunate. Regardless, they can still be valid supporters. And we rely heavily on their generosity. They give on faith that what they are doing is important, without the benefit of full understanding. And that strikes me as the kind of donor worth keeping. Awareness campaigns try to capture attention and educate as best as possible. But nobody will ever understand as well as a patient or their close circle of friends and family, and inherently those who offer support may not always show it in the preferred ways—but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be valued.
I work with a medical foundation and one of our primary hurdles is awareness, because hardly anybody knows what the disease is or that it even exists. But then again, our chronic illness involves bowels instead of breasts, which is about as sexy as, well, diarrhea. We hold fundraising walks hoping for 200 people in small markets and 1200 in larger markets. In my little market the breast cancer walk had a turnout of 20,000. We literally drool over the kind of attention that Pink gets, and can hardly compete for donors. But we try, and we succeed. And I am pleased with whatever help we can get, whether it comes from sincere understanding or from a giggle about potty humor. My book uses humor to cover a difficult topic, so I definitely understand that there can be a fine line between lighthearted support and making light, and it can be hard to distinguish sometimes. But I am inclined to extend the benefit of the doubt when people offer their assistance, in whatever form.
We could debate whether breast cancer deserves its apparent royalty status as The Most Important Disease in the World, and whether ‘pink nausea’ will have a damaging impact somehow… but again, as publicists say, “All publicity is good publicity.” This bra color campaign is a publicist’s dream. It started apparently by itself, with nobody taking credit. It spread effortlessly to millions of people in a matter of hours. It has everything a good marketing campaign needs—mystery, intrigue, a sense of exclusivity that makes people want to play along, and most importantly, self-propagation… to the point that people are searching the internet and passing it on like wildfire without even knowing what it is. Plus, it’s FREE!
Is it altruistic? Is it action? I don’t know, but it’s incredible publicity, and that absolutely translates to awareness. Since it was primarily passed on by women, perhaps it also demonstrates the power of women’s solidarity. Regardless, it’s an accomplishment that I am sure will benefit the cause, without question. Maybe not directly, but perhaps it created a wave of hits to cancer support web sites, or other second-acts beyond the status update. It might not be the perfect solution, but it’s a blessing worth counting.
In my own private tribute to a friend who survived testicular cancer, I posted the color of my underwear that day, without explanation. Not surprisingly, my too-subtle message was misinterpreted as a joke about cross-dressing in a blue brassiere. But it makes me wonder why women should have the exclusive patent on awareness with sex appeal. Remember Livestrong? Lance Armstrong certainly has an appeal, being an eye-pleasing super-human athlete. He definitely captured the world’s attention with those bracelets. Still, with all that focus on testicular cancer, one could easily have gotten the impression that it’s a disease with just a single victim. And nowadays, I hardly ever see yellow through the sea of pink. For crying out loud, the whole of professional football wore pink for an entire month last fall.
So, what’s so different about Pink Power? Are breasts really that much more of an attention-getter? Apparently so. Maybe it’s the simple fact that it’s easier for a man to lose a testicle privately than for a woman to lose a breast. I don’t know.
Certainly the bra color campaign raises the question of whether it’s OK to exploit the sexy side of breasts for a good cause. Breasts are used to sell nearly everything. Is that contributing to the greater good? Busty attempts to sell magazines, cars, beer? Probably not. Flashy efforts to sell raunchy videos depicting the lowered inhibitions of drunken college co-eds? Definitely not. But what about a mission to save lives? With all the breast exploitation going on, might we at least hang on to the one form that is actually doing some good?
Make a difference:
American Cancer Society
Susan G Komen for the Cure
National Breast Cancer Foundation
Or whatever illness needs your help… here’s where much of my effort goes:
Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America
