Does "Save the Boobs" Breast Cancer PSA Go Too Far?
A beautiful bikini-clad woman walks towards the camera, in slow motion, with tight shots of her breasts. A lingerie commercial? No. A beer commercial, perhaps? Nope. It's a public service announcement for breast cancer. And while it certainly is memorable, the question must be asked -- does it go too far?Watch the PSA here:
The PSA, called "Save the Boobs," is the work of a charity called "Rethink Breast Cancer." With Breast Cancer Awareness Month being in October, the charity wanted to come up with something that would reach young people.
"The spots are definitely not for everyone,” charity Founder M.J. Decoteau 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."
Not everyone is a fan. One woman told ABC's "Good Morning America," "It’s pretty offensive. It looks like it’s a Victoria's Secret or a bathing suit ad. Not an ad about women’s health.”
And a man told the show, "I think the video grabs attention. 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.”
What do you think?
Does "Save the Boobs" Breast Cancer PSA Go Too Far?
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save the boobs
As the daughter of a breast cancer patient who was diagnosed when she was 31 (and sadly has passed away at the age of 47) i do not think there is anything wrong with this ad. It serves its purpose. It draws attention to the goal which is to educate. When I was 17 and watching my mom go through this, I had no CLUE about any of this and truthfully didn't give it much thought. As the parent of a teenager, I can tell you, topics like this are viewed and discussed together. It's time to stop thinking we have to be so proper. Use what works. this does!!
- mskathi70
September 24, 2009 7:16AM
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Sex sells...
Advertising companies know that provocative images get attention. They are used to sell beer, cars , sports , jeans and so forth. If they are allowed... why wouldn't they be used to get across important messages.
Well Done, Madison Avenue, or whoever created this ad.
- Russell Fine
September 24, 2009 7:43AM
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Fail to see
I fail to see how this psa is educational. Isn't it more about saving the life and fighting the cancer than it is about saving how a woman looks? In this ad where does it mention that a lot of woman get their breasts removed to SAVE their lives? It astonished me that an educational effort framed the issue along a male's purient self interest. I think that speaks volumes about what advertisers think about a man's ability to compute a serious health issue. Maybe that's why big pharmaceutical companies are getting men into the doctors office to treat their diabetes or cardiovascular diseases because those diseases might be linked to erectile dysfunction.
If it's all about shock-value, why not show a suffering dying woman, emaciated and exhausted surrounded by her heartbroken husband and children ? I think we ASSUME the only way to get through to men is by using sex. Show them the heart-wrenching TRUTH.
- debmch
September 24, 2009 11:08AM
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Really?
You turn a breast cancer PSA into manhate?
WTF?
- SolarSanitizer
September 24, 2009 5:07PM
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Priorities, priorities
You're going to compromise the effectiveness of the marketing campaign just to satisfy your own prudishness? Well I, for one, am willing to offend my prudishness to ensure breast cancer advertising does its job!
One of us has their eye on the right ball.
- Chibinium
September 24, 2009 7:18PM
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Effectiveness you say?
Compromise effectiveness? Effectiveness? Has the PSA done it's job? Are we talking about breast cancer or about the commercial itself? And if you are talking about breast cancer what exactly? I find myself talking about the ad and that I think the point could have been made more efffectively WITHOUT the insinuation being made that it is all about the boobs because it is not. A lot of the times YOU JUST CAN"T SAVE THEM. I think the ad could have been a little more informative.
- debmch
September 26, 2009 10:09AM
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Mostly, it's just sad
We shouldn't be funding breast cancer research because we like boobs. We should be trying to find a cure for breast cancer because people are suffering and sometimes dying from breast cancer. Maybe this is an effective way to make money and raise awareness, but it's sad that that's what it takes.
It's also sad that other kinds of cancers that occur in less ... visually appealing places will never get the kind of funding that breast cancer gets. If it's less socially acceptable to say, "Save the [Body Part]," and that's the justification we have for trying to stop cancer there, it'll be hard to drum up support for fighting the other cancers that are equally if not more deadly than breast cancer. (Imagine the ad for colorectal cancer... or, don't.) That's really unfair to the many many people who have suffered or are suffering from those cancers, and it's a sad commentary on human nature.
- thoughtcounts Z
September 25, 2009 12:26PM
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Hmmmm.....
I really don't know what to say.
What a strange commercial! But then, all commercials are strange.
I quit watching television over 30 years ago and it's still a mystery to me why anyone in their right mind would waste even an hour of their time on 40 minutes of half witted programming broken up by 20 minutes of lame brained commercials.
Sure, the commercial is an insult to intelligence, but intelligent viewers were never the target audience of television in the first place. If stupid people enjoy watching stupid programs, at a 2 to 1 ratio to stupid commercials, it seems to me that every possible brain cell capable responding to the purely idiotic has been burned numb a very long time ago.
What could they use as a standard of measure? A tampon commercial? A beer ad? Hair dye? Dish soap? Promotions of products designed to control the stench of various body parts? Advertisements to control fungal growth on heads, hands, feet, and assorted genitalia? Rectal ointments, douches, boil salves, pimple creams, tablets for gas relief? Where would anyone who accepts these things as standard fare draw the line?
I can't imagine anyone not capable of being offended by TV in general, voicing objections to this in particular. It's no more or less foolish than the garbage with which you feed your minds on a daily basis anyhow.
- Don Earl
September 25, 2009 8:49PM
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