The Bread Exam
British Islamic Medical Association, Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation and American University of Beirut Medical Center, Deutche Krebshilfe in Germany
Issue 58 | March 2021
Agency
McCann Worldgroup Paris, Germany, McCann Health London
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors, McCann Paris: Cédric Astrella, Sebastien Boutebel CCO McCANN Worldgroup Germany: Götz UImer ECD, McCann Health London: Guy Swimer Creative, McCann Health London: Sakeena Amjad Chief Creative Officer McCann Europe: Adrian Botan Creative Excellence Manager McCann Europe: Carmen Bistrian Director of Communications, UK & Europe: Jessica Bayat Creative Director: Guy Lewis Associate Creative Director: Mateo Fernandez Art Director: Sonia Presne Art Director: Flora Sagnes Copywriter: Anne-Sophie Guerin Copywriter: Farah El Feghali Copywriter: Benjamin Homsy
Production Team
Motion Designer: Etienne Philippe, Karim Victorin Head of digital: Pierre-Jean Bernard Community Manager: Jessica Mezoela TV producers: Arnaud Lemens, Matthieu Tombarelle Post producer: Caroline De Génis Sound producer: Isabelle Crechet Production Agency: Satellite My Love Executive Producer: Alain Dib Associate Producer: Omar Cabbabe Film Director: Danielle Rizhalla PR Agency: Weber Shandwick France CEO: Eloi Asseline Senior Strategist: Jean Paoli Strategist: Elise Décultot PR Senior Manager: Deborah Guepey Sound Production: Octopus Productions Producer: Claire Paillot Sound Engineer: Olivier Vehert Production coordinator and President of Slow Food Beirut: Barbara Massaad McCANN Worldgroup Germany: Jerome Cholet McCANN Worldgroup Germany: Karin Stelzner CRAFT Germany: Michael Koch, Matthias Miemczyk Reachbird: Julien Stiefvater, Selin Wendel Deutsche Krebshilfe: Sabine Boos, Marcus von Husen
Other Credits
GP and General Secretary of the British Islamic Medical Association: Dr Salman Waqar, VP, Global Business Leader: Cédric Vanhoutte Account Director: Nathalie Maisonnave Account Manager: Salomé Lhote, Camille Ghossein Deputy General Manager in charge of Strategy: Erik Bertin Strategic Planners: Tugce Sezer, Minerva Sosa Soria PR Agency Lebanon: Rowat Public Relations (RPR) Managing partner: Mark Daou Media Relations Director: Ms Eliane Sahyoun Influencer relations manager: Raya Boutros Account executive: Jad Oueini Account Lead: Damielle Robertson Strategy Director: Parrus Doshi Project Lead: Kathrine Bradley WEBER SHANDWICK TURKEY Director, Client Experience: Aycin Noyan Account Director, Client Experience: Hande Hazinedaroglu Manager, Client Experience: Begum Tosun WEBER SHANDWICK LONDON Managing Director, Consumer: Kate Sarginson Account Director, Consumer: Rosanna Sacks Senior Account Executive, Consumer: Jessica Brand Senior Project Manager: Zahra Anjari Executive Creative Director: Steve Back
Date
2020
Background
To coincide with World Cancer Day, famous influencers from 3 countries have joined forces to launch “The Bread Exam,”, a campaign that uses bread kneading to show women exactly how-to self-check their breasts to help detect early signs of breast cancer.
Idea
Launched by the British Islamic Medical Association and McCann Health in the UK, “The Bread Exam” has been developed to help tackle cultural taboos relating to intimate parts of the body. These cultural taboos can prevent women from going to the doctor and even discussing the subject or conducting self examination. Using the same simple gestures used to prepare bread dough, “The Bread Exam” teaches women how to perform self-checks and detect early signs of breast cancer. The campaign – created by McCann Paris – was originally launched in Lebanon by the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation, with Chef Um Ali creating the first version of “The Bread Exam”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CfhuJJg4rA&t=17s For World Cancer Day, 3 famous influencers from Turkey, UK and Germany – countries with large Muslim communities – joined forces with local NGOs to create their own versions of “The Bread Exam”.
Influencer Bread Exam video in Turkey Influencer Bread Exam in Germany In the UK, 2017 MasterChef winner, doctor, chef and influencer Dr Saliha Mahmood Ahmed has created her own version of “The Bread Exam” The NGOs behind the campaign: the British Islamic Medical Association, the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation (LBCF), American University of Beirut Medical Center,Deutche Krebshilfe in Germany.
Salman Waqar, General Secretary from the British Islamic Medical Association, said; “Around a quarter of breast cancer cases are preventable in the UK, thanks to early detection and screening. Sadly, the Muslim community in the UK have lower rates of breast screening than average. Ethnic minority communities also have a poorer rate of survival after being diagnosed with breast cancer. “The Bread Exam” is an innovative tool to help address these inequalities by taking our health into our hands, as we learn how to monitor for worrying changes and when to seek help. By increasing breast cancer awareness, we will help save lives.” Recent research has revealed that cancer awareness is particularly low amongst the Muslim community in the UK, as demonstrated by minimal uptake levels for breast screening[1].
Mirna Hobballah, Vice-President of the Lebanese Breast Cancer foundation, said, “In order to reach women facing this situation in the Middle East and not only, we wanted to avoid the taboo of talking about intimate body parts or exposing them by going to health specialists for a first check-up. Since many households bake their own bread and are interested in this subject - especially now, during the Covid 19 pandemic - we decided to use baking bread as a euphemism and talk to women about baking bread instead of talking about breasts, self-examination or cancer.” Dr Saliha Mahmood Ahmed said, “We created “The Bread Exam” to give women a tool to visually demonstrate how they should check their breasts for new or unusual changes. I hope “The Bread Exam” provides some reassurance and shows the simplicity of self-checking. All the movements performed as part of “The Bread Exam” are designed to detect any changes in breast tissue and I hope the tutorial helps women detect early signs of breast cancer and seek help from their GP as soon as possible if they notice anything unusual.”