50 Mind Blowing Breast Cancer Awareness Ads & Campaigns From Across The Globe

New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation has launched “Our Women”, a love song by New Zealand artists for all kiwi women to hear. The music video, featuring “Not Taken Lightly” by Chris Knox, is designed to remind New Zealand women that they are precious and irreplaceable, and making sure each one has the information needed to stay healthy. Helena McAlpine was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. Her story through treatment and remission was covered in national media. Now in 2012 the cancer has returned and Helena has been told she will not survive this time. To ensure that other kiwi women didn’t suffer the same fate, Helena partnered with the NZBCF to create a special message. The campaign is online at ourwomen.co.nz, aiming to reach the 2,098,654 women of New Zealand.  

Breast Cancer Awareness: Inspiring Ad Shows Woman Returning To Her Life (VIDEO)

"Hair", a commercial for OU Medicine's Cancer Center reminds viewers that cancer treatment is an emotionally costly time for patients.

Creating a hopeful commercial about cancer is fraught territory, but advertising agency BVK’s ad for the University of Oklahoma's new cancer centre managed to forego the use of pink in an ad that is both subtle and powerful as it shows a woman recovering from cancer and chemotherapy, the changes she undergoes compressed into a single morning.

In the video, we see a woman, bald from chemotherapy treatments, staring at her own reflection in despair. As she goes about her morning routine, activities most of us take for granted -- showering, dressing, making a sandwich -- becoming moments of reflection, as we watch her hair, and her smile, slowly return.

Without ever using the word "cancer," BVK shows a woman coming back from the lowest point in her life in a way that reminds us that illness and healing are constant, daily experiences for those going through them.

Breast Cancer Campaigns

Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) (also referred to locally as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM)) is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure. The campaign also offers information and support to those affected by breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Awareness Bare in Scotland

NHS is running a television advertising campaign in Scotland, using what appears to be a naked woman holding images breasts containing early stage breast cancer. Glasgow actress Elaine C Smith, whose mother died of breast cancer, reminds her viewers that lumps aren’t the only signs of cancer. Any changes should be checked out. The breast cancer campaign is part of the Scottish Government’s £30 million Detect Cancer Early drive, which aims to increase the early detection of cancer by 25 per cent, saving more than 300 lives a year by the end of the next Parliamentary term. The campaign launched on 4th September 2012 and is running across TV (post 9pm), radio, online and press for four weeks. 

Support for the Woman Behind the Cancer

Breast Cancer Care in the UK is running “Support for the woman behind the cancer”, an integrated advertising campaign using striking imagery to illustrate that behind most breast cancer diagnoses is a real woman with emotional and practical support needs. The campaign is centred around the concept of a woman emerging from a veil of medication. A video is supplemented with billboards and outdoor posters,   and an opportunity for people to show their support for the woman behind the breast cancer. A pro-bono Facebook advertising campaign with Sponsored Stories is being coordinated by BLiNQ Media to reach thousands of users at facebook.com/breastcancercare. Breast Cancer Care has recruited guest bloggers to talk about their own experiences on the campaign area of the charity’s website: breastcancercare.org.uk/thewoman.

Dress for the Cause

The Breast Cancer Society of Canada and Dress for the Cause campaign invited companies, schools, organizations and clubs to participate in Dress for the Cause by wearing “support bra” t-shirts. The campaign, focused on raising funds for breast cancer research encouraged men and women  to wear pink on October 28.

Pink Ribbon Girls Should Never Be Parted

Breast cancer awareness magazine Pink Ribbon launched a print and video advertising campaign in the Netherlands featuring shots by British photographer Rankin. “Girls should never be parted”, the tagline of the campaign, is connected with photographs of women with two bare breasts. The print campaign included poems celebrating the friendship between two breasts, ending with an encouragement to buy Pink Ribbon Magazine, a charity glossy magazine raising funds for The Pink Ribbon Foundation, Netherlands.

Boobyball Bares All

Rethink Breast Cancer recently commissioned four women to pose topless in Toronto raise awareness of the BoobyBall fundraising event. The four models, one of whom is a breast cancer survivor, each presented a message written on their breasts, posing for photographs with supportive bystanders. “Hang out for a good cause”. “Bras aren’t the only support they need”. “Where cleavage meets charity”. “Boobyball 10 boobyball.com”. The BoobyBall Bares All campaign was developed at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Toronto, by creative directors Aaron Starkman, Michael Murray, Darren Richardson, art director Gail Pak, copywriters Neil Blewett and Freddy Nduna, and producer Jen Dark

Komen Italia Preventing Breast Cancer

Komen Italia onlus (Komen Italy Online) commissioned this print advertisement encouraging readers to donate funds for breast cancer prevention. The text: “Per il 90 % dei tumori del seno c’è una cura che non lascia segni. La prevenzione. Dai il tuo contributo per sostenere la lotta ai tumori del seno.” Tranlated from Italian to English: “For ninety percent of breast cancer there is a cure that leaves no marks. Prevention. Contribute to the fight against breast cancer.”