Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
The problem is that raising "awareness" in and of itself is completely meaningless (and honestly, who isn't aware of breast cancer by now? They've marketed themselves so well that whenever I see a pink product of any kind I immediately associate it with breast cancer regardless if any such association exists or not).
I've taken several marketing and public relations courses at UofC, and one of the first things they teach in every class is that "raising awareness" is never a valid metric for any campaign. You have to change behaviour, and that's why this stupid Facebook meme is a failure. The message should have said, "Post the colour of your bra in your status, and when you're finished that, remember to do your monthly breast self-exam! You can also donate to the Breast Cancer Society by following the link below."
That would have been infinitely more effective. Instead, this campaign trivialized an important health issue and turned it into an opportunity for women to flirt with everyone on Facebook. My wife (age 30) reacted to receiving the private message thusly, "How old are these people, 12? 'Tee-hee, look at me, I'm wearing a bra! LOL'"
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Your whole argument is based on the assumption that
all of these women posted the colour of their bras and nothing else. That's a huge assumption and extremely improbable.
Sure, most probably did just that, but based on the size of the campaign, it's guaranteed some have actually taken the next step and made a donation, planed for more tests etc. "changed behavior" as you were looking for. Something they would not have done 3 days ago when they were "aware" of breast cancer, but not thinking about it.
"awareness" isn't just about learning the unknown, it's also about focus and conscious thought of the known.
Even if 100 women made some sort of behavior change because this brought breast cancer to the focus of their minds for a couple of days, it's worth it.
I can't understand how anyone could have a problem with this.