"Save The Boobs": Is This Breast Cancer Awareness Ad Too Sexy? (VIDEO)

Canadian TV Host Aliya-Jasmine Sovani has stirred up some controversy with a new breast cancer awareness video called "Save the Boobs". Sovani (also the woman in the video) writes in to the Huffington Post:

[The video] was designed to promote a local charity, called the Boobyball for young people under the age of 30 to get aware about a serious subject that affects women my age (but is often thought of as a "grandma's disease")... I was not hired by a company to show my assets, this was completely my concept and after finding out my cousin will be losing one of her breasts to cancer THIS month, I agreed to lend my face to the cause.

The video features a buxom young woman in a bikini whose breasts are being admired by men and women alike. The tagline is "You know you like them, now it's time to save the boobs."

The ad is clearly aimed at a younger generation and is designed to be memorable as well as appeal to men:

"The spots are definitely not for everyone," charity Founder M.J. Decoteau told ABC News. "Young people are picking up pamphlets with a 65-year-old woman on the cover and probably tossing them out. We're really about creating a bold way of communicating the message in a fun way that's going to stop them in their tracks. We're hoping that they get the take-away message that is to be breast aware."

Watch the ad below and let us know your thoughts on the PSA in the comments.

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Comments

[HDAwareness]

There are WORSE Diseases than Cancer...please find out more?

www.HDSA.org
www.hdsa-MI.com
www.HDAwareness.com

thank you.

[mky267]

Here is a link to the television ad Pink-Ribbon is at this time running in my countrty -Netherlands- to raise breast cancer awareness. http://vimeo.com/6753255

1000 volunteers contributed to make this amazing time-lapse animation.

The voice over talks about breasts that should be allowed to go through all life changes as two best friends. (vriendinnen is the dutch word for female best friends)

[janeycat]

As long as it gets the attention of young girls and helps them to learn that breast cancer can happen to them to,i think its ok...its no different than all the commercials about mens erections ,,,there are at least 5 or 6 different promoters for that..everyone sees it everyday.
I think boys and girls see this in real life at the beach on tv shows and in the movies enough that it wont harm them.

Here's to hoping that boys and girls alike will perform regular breast exams ...
Cancer has not got a preference ....it can happen to guys too...

[janetnyc]

I applaud the reason for this ad and the attempt to bring attention to this serious subject; however, I think there must be better ways to make people aware of the risk that breast cancer poses to women and to the men, women, and children who love them.

[apache-67]

Awesome!

[Palemoon]

I found it curious that the video on YouTube has been labelled as "adult" and gotta be 18+ to view it now, LOL. Dorky puritans, always trying to stop people having fun.

[Tags]

If they want to protect children

they should tag Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck videos.

Glenn Beck, not the singer.

[grf67]

What is the problem here people? Get a life and lighten up. The moralistic, adulterous republicans are in the minority.

[BigSlick674]

My wife liked that ad a lot. It got her attention and she made an appointment for her exam immediately after seeing it.

I'd say it worked for her.

[nkhogan]

I like it! No not to sexy and it makes an important point. It is an attention getter in the right way. What young woman wants to loose her boobs too early.

Some people posting here are very puritanical. Relax, you don't have to watch the ad if it offends you.

[GraceFoster]

Fighting breast cancer is about saving lives, not boobs. This ad makes it seem like it is a bigger tragedy to get a mastectomy than it is to get cancer. Sometimes losing the boobs is the best way to treat the cancer. Do we really want to tell men (and women) that breast cancer is all about mourning your wife's boobs?

[Palemoon]

Oh lighten up, if there's half a chance that this commercial might make someone, anyone, in America take cancer seriously for the first time ever, then I'm all for it.

Besides, it's a light-hearted look at the way guys see girls. You know, how they can't seem to look us in the eyes when we wear plunging necklines. And hey, if they want to participate in free breast exams, I'm all for that too! Muahahaha.

Seriously, 2 of my sisters have had breast cancer with 2 very different outcomes. One caught the small lump right away and so only has a small dimple to show from it's removal. My other sister didn't know it til it was too late. Hate to have the whole breast removed along with lymph nodes in the armpit on that side as well, not to mention chemo and a lengthy battle to get cancer free.

If anything can promote early detection, even if it is a corny commercial like this, then I still consider it a good thing. ;o)

[nkhogan]

Fanned. I agree. It is a light hearted way of dealing wiht a serious subject.

[Charlie King]

Many women *do* mourn their breasts. Losing a breast is an immediately tangible reality, unlike the possibility of death, which can be denied. Breasts are part of how women interact with the world. They effect self esteem, physical comfort, and sexual pleasure. They nurture children and attract lovers. I think it is extremely relevant, and probably more effective on the younger population, to couch this issue in terms of breasts, which you can relate to (and do, every day) than death, which you can't (death is too final to deal fully with its reality).

[fitjulie]

I actually just wrote about body image & breast cancer (http://www.galtime.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=292:bodyimageafterbreastcancer&Itemid=63)

At first, I was afraid this makes too light of such a serious issue. But in the end, if it gets younger people (at whom it's clearly aimed) thinking about BC - cool - super-cool! It's not just our mothers' or our aunties' disease - I know.

[disprovit]

There are 50 million ways you could make an effective and creative video about breast cancer. You didn't have to portray people as jerks and promote number one most cancerous food hot dog. BTW alcohol is also a contributing factor to breast cancer.

[KIVPossum]

Good ad. Maybe more women would have an exam if their husbands or S.O.s would nag them.

Come on boys, protect them puppies, send your sweetie for a checkup, then send a check

[pepper47]

jaboom.... no, not too sexy

[Hegemoneyhoney]

A poster here identified the woman who created and "starred" in this ad as an MTV-Canada host. I would speculate that this "ad" is more about her career ambitions than about any concern for anybody's breast health. To those who have criticized my previous post as a "feminist deconstruction" of this ad, I repeat: the number one killer of women is HEART DISEASE. Breast cancer campaigns generate more money than any other health issue, far out of proportion to its lethality or prevalence. Why? I have long felt that men were treated unfairly because prostate cancer, and testicular cancer for that matter, get little attention and less money than breast cancer. Tonight on a TV program with Dr. Oz he responded to a woman who asked a question about her "boobs" by answering with the respectful term "breasts". Finally, to argue in favor of this ad by saying you or someone you care about has/had breast cancer (why not "boob cancer"?) misses the point. Yes, there should be awareness campaigns, about this and all other disease/health conditions. The question is what kind of campaign. To say that this appeals to young women is to say it's ok to use disrespectful, hypersexualizing images - like MTV's - to promote health! That's akin to saying we will use images that say we don't really like YOU, just the salacious use of your body parts, to convey images that pretend we do like you.

[blessedtoes]

Nope.