Check it before it’s removed. Using censorship for a good cause.
Pink Ribbon Germany
Issue 40 | September 2016
Agency
DDB Berlin
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Eric Schoeffler Creative Managing Director Myles Lord Executive Creative Director Tom Hauser Creative Director Digital Konradin Resa Creative Director Copy Nikolai Diepenbrock Senior Art Director Lilli Langenheim Senior Copywriter Edward Sedelius Senior Designer Marc Kaufholz Junior Art Director Isabella Jorgensen Junior Copywriter Taria Hocke
Production Team
Illustrator Sebastian Hudert Programmer Bleech UG, Berlin Photographer Hannes Caspar Editor/ Motion Designer Zhong To
Date
March 2016
Background
Breast cancer is an insidious, near-ubiquitous disease, with at least one in eight women likely to be diagnosed with it. Early detection can help save lives and much of the effort around International Women's Day (March 8th) centred around the ongoing Pink Ribbon campaign to drive awareness of the issue.
Idea
Pink Ribbon's central idea – that women should regularly check their breasts to avoid mastectomies - went live on Facebook and Instagram.
Under the slogan 'check it before it's removed', women shared photos of themselves, with one breast showing, breaking the decency rules of Instagram and Facebook.
Pink Ribbon encouraged women to share the posts before they were removed by moderators.
As the censorship took hold, so media coverage drove public opinion, leading Facebook and Instagram to unban the posts.
Results
The campaign reached more than 29 million and on March 8th traffic to Pink Ribbon's breast cancer awareness information pages increased by almost 28,000%.
Our Thoughts
In the never-ending fight against breast cancer, the first weapon is awareness.
Against the threat of charity fatigue and message blindness, it must be hard to find new ways to drive the message home.
This campaign succeeded wildly – and garnered multiple awards at Cannes – by using the simple tactic of turning Facebook and Instagram’s censorship into a means to drive awareness.
At its heart was a clear understanding of social media’s weakness – the desire to censor – and its strengths – that nothing stays hidden for very long and people’s insatiable desire to share.
The key to the campaign was a brave dare – without which the impact would have been significantly less. Full marks to DDB Germany and the client for showing boldness.