Sunday, October 31, 2010

Breast Cancer Awareness Status Updates

As you may know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In October 2009, Facebook was flooded with status updates by women disclosing their bra colors to raise breast cancer awareness. This year, a similar viral initiative was taken. A message was forwarded on Facebook giving females instructions to post a status stating, “I like it on the…” and then to finish the post with where they put their purse when they get home.

The provocative-sounding statuses gained a lot of attention, but not necessarily for breast cancer awareness. Many Facebook users were confused about how the statuses correlated with breast cancer awareness, unlike the previous year with the bra colors.

So one has to wonder, if no one knows what you are talking about or how it relates to the subject, is it still good press? Although the status updates had nothing initially to do with breast cancer, they did get Facebook users talking. Users inquired about the trend and how each status was unique. Men were particularly intrigued about what the statuses meant and why woman were being so vocal about where they “liked it.” In addition, women participating in this event were united on a common front, to raise breast cancer awareness.

From a PR standpoint, this campaign united women and got Facebook users talking. However, the lack of correlation between the statuses and breast cancer awareness may have made this initiative less effective than the previous year’s. Do you think this campaign was effective in raising breast cancer awareness?

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