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At first glance, the new poster for the Breast Cancer Foundation’s annual breast cancer awareness campaign seems like an illustration of a woman pointing to a pimple on her face.
Look closer, and you realise that the illustration is painted on a female torso, and the pimple is actually the nipple, giving the graphical illusion of how little things sometimes seem more important than breast cancer awareness.
The quirky take on a serious topic has gotten people talking.
This is the 14th annual campaign by the foundation to raise awareness of breast cancer and to educate the public, particularly women, on the importance of early detection.
This year’s campaign kicked off last Friday when secondary school students started selling the iconic pink ribbons to raise funds for the foundation. The images will be seen on donation boxes islandwide, as well as at shopping malls where the foundation will hold its roadshows.
 The posters were designed by associate creative director Thomas Yang and his team from DDB Singapore. Since 2003, the creative agency has been providing its services to the foundation pro bono.
Mr Yang, 37, explains: “Our team had an insight about women, which is that they tend to be concerned about their faces or their hair and their weight but not so much about the things to do with life and death such as breast cancer.
“Our campaign has the tag line ‘Are you obsessed with the right things?’, which will hopefully drive home the message to be aware of breast cancer and its prevention.”
The foundation’s general manager, Ms Christine Ang, says: “We like this tagline, as it hits home the message that no woman should take her health for granted, especially when breast cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer of women in Singapore.”
Each year, about 1,350 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed and more than 300 women die from the disease, with the peak incidence of breast cancer occurring in women aged 55 to 59. However, 40 per cent of diagnoses are in women below 50.
Media consultants LifeStyle spoke to think that this edgy take on breast cancer awareness through a clever use of visuals sends a powerful message that many will be able to relate to, while not being too highbrow.
Mr Soh Yew Peng, course manager at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Film & Media Studies, says: “I think it’s brilliantly tongue-in-cheek without losing focus of its key message – breast cancer is not ‘superficial’.”
He adds: “We have seen the ineffectiveness of using gory pictures to depict the suffering of smokers. These pictures have lost their shock appeal and they are now nothing more than a temporary visual annoyance.”
Women LifeStyle spoke to mostly agree with Mr Soh.
Marketing executive Victoria Koh, 28, says: “I love it, and I think it’s a really cool way of sending the message to women. Provocative, yes, but that’s what it takes to get people talking about it, isn’t it?”
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