Naughty breast cancer awareness PSAs like 'Save the Boobs' video leave some viewers confused
By Rosemary Black
Daily News Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 23rd 2009, 11:14 AM

A voluptuous, bikini-clad woman walks into a pool party scene as strip club music plays. Lingerie ad? Nope, a breast cancer awareness public service announcement that’s raising a few eyebrows.

With Breast Cancer Awareness Month just a week away, this is one of the sexy new PSAs which, though not exactly discreet, is definitely attention-grabbing.

The pool party PSA, called “Save the Boobs,” is from the Rethink Breast Cancer charity. Founder M.J. Decoteau told ABC News that her organization had to find a way to reach young people, who think they’re invincible.

“The spots are definitely not for everyone,” she told ABC News. “Young people are picking up pamphlets with a 65-year-old woman on the cover and probably tossing them out. We’re really about creating a bold way of communicating the message in a fun way that’s going to stop them in their tracks. We’re hoping that they get the take-away message that is to be breast aware."

The text of the ad reads, “Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in young women ages 25 to 49,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

In another sassy new PSA (for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, sponsored by Yoplait yogurt), a group of women cup their hands over and under their right breasts, according to the L.A. Times, as their voices are heard saying, “I pledge allegiance to my girls, to my chi-chis, to my hooters, to my ta-tas, to my gazongas.”

So far, not everyone’s a fan of the sexy spots.

“It’s pretty offensive,” one woman told “Good Morning America." “It looks like it’s a Victoria’s Secret or a bathing suit ad. Not an ad about women’s health.”

And while the “Save the Boobs” ad drew a laugh from one man interviewed by ABC, he didn’t seem to think it made him consider the dangers of breast cancer.

“I think the video grabs attention,” he told ABC News. “It’s very proactive sexually, but I don’t know if it will communicate the dangers of breast cancer to men who might be compelled to give their wives an exam. Breast cancer is a very serious matter, and I don’t think it should be taken lightly and made fun of.”

But Decoteau feels that it’s important for women’s partners to get involved.

“We hear time and time again from women who have found a lump in their breast that they asked their husbands or their boyfriends to get involved when they’re scared to check,” she told ABC News. “We encourage women to get their partners involved.”

Breast cancer’s not the only disease that’s prompting some eye-widening PSAs. One awareness group for lung cancer, which gets 10 times less funding than breast cancer, used lingerie in its PSA, according to ABC News. And a British PSA to warn teenagers of the perils of texting while driving showed a horrific car accident.

So will the public get the message from ads like these?

“They will offend some people but in the end they will be memorable,” advertising columnist Dan Neil told ABC News. “People will act on the memory of these ads.”



http://www.nydailynews.co...z0RxdRw7OW

I think we need also an ASS cancer awareness campaign.

Not offensive at all. Women like their breasts, like others liking their breasts, they want to keep their breasts...ESPECIALLY young women - this speaks directly to them and does it very well.

This ad is not for old bitties who are already educated on this subject, it's for young adults that don't think it can happen to them.