Experts weigh in: How breast cancer awareness ads can empower without objectification or insensitivity

A recent breast cancer awareness advertisement had to be pulled back for being insensitive. The use of suggestive imagery and euphemisms such as “check your oranges” have reignited the debate on the appropriate tone and messaging for sensitive topics. Brandwagon sought the opinion of experts on how women’s issues can be portrayed in ads without threatening human dignity or promoting sexist stereotypes. Here’s what they had to say:

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Stop associating shame with body parts

Nisha Sampath, Managing Partner, Bright Angles Consulting

Maybe the makers felt that women would be embarrassed in public places by explicitly using the word ‘breast’. But I can’t imagine why. It’s an educational ad. Education about women’s issues is not needed only for women, it’s equally important for men. Including education to call things by their correct name.
I do understand that breast cancer campaigns abroad have used fruit as part of their messaging. But because they worked there, does not mean they work in India. Here, using code words for taboo body parts (and giggling about it) is an age-old habit of small kids, because they grow up associating shame and embarrassment with these words. This is the problem that I have with this ad. It regresses to those childhood days, inviting the same reflex response — a smirk. And in the process, it dilutes a message which should be powerful and authoritative. It also makes the institution issuing the ad look immature and lacking in credibility.
What can be done in such cases? Use female authority figures who are respected — doctors, lawyers, IAS officers, even politicians — to drive home the message.
Using a graphics approach (using symbols which are understood) can build codes that are universally recognisable. The media approach should leverage women-friendly spaces like toilets and waiting rooms to communicate more directly to women.
Take learnings from sanitary napkin brands, who have done a great job busting taboos on mainstream television. They have even evolved to showing red blood versus blue fluid.

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Don’t resort to sensationalism

Yasin Hamidani, Director, Media Care Brand Solutions

The recent DMRC ad that urged women to “check your oranges”, presumably as part of a breast cancer awareness campaign, sparked a debate on how sensitive issues like cancer should be approached in advertising. The ad was widely criticised for being in poor taste and trivialising a serious health issue by using a fruit to symbolise body parts, leading to its withdrawal.
When it comes to raising awareness about serious issues like breast cancer, sensitivity is key. Ads should aim to educate without resorting to sensationalism, objectification, or unnecessary metaphors that could detract from the gravity of the message. While creativity in awareness campaigns can help grab attention, there is a fine line between being bold and being offensive. For example, campaigns that focus on factual information, testimonials from survivors, or medical guidance tend to resonate better.
To avoid crossing the line, brands must collaborate with advocacy groups, healthcare professionals, and focus groups during campaign development. Transparency and education should be prioritised over humor or suggestive content. Cancer awareness ads should empower people with knowledge and action steps, not shock them with insensitive symbolism.
Navigating this delicate space requires a thoughtful approach where creative strategies align with respect for the subject matter and the audience.

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A classic example of the patriarchal gaze to fuel narrative

Saumya Baijal, Strategy Director, India, Virtue Worldwide

Women’s breasts are not oranges. They are not shapely, round fruits, that get rotten over time. Or show signs of rotting, therefore damage. They are a part of our bodies that need care. ‘Check your oranges’ as an ad, is a classic example of the deeply patriarchal male gaze that controls and fuels our narratives. It controls the narrative on the female body, its representation and role, across culture. To a man’s eyes, women’s breasts are shapely round fruits, ideal to be objectified. Look at the rest of the imagery in the ad closely — it is women that are tailor made to the stereotypical male gaze. Fair, pouty, thin, shapely breasts, flowing hair, holding oranges in their hands as other women look on. To say that breast cancer is a woman’s world, objectifying the female body in a questionable intent to spread awareness about caring for the same body part, that they refuse to name.
How do you break taboo about a specific illness of a body part, without naming that body’s part? Doesn’t ‘oranges’ reinforce that taboo in the first place? If we can’t read ‘breasts’ or say ‘breasts’ how is one to take care of the said ‘breasts’ and check the said ‘breasts’?
For ‘breast cancer awareness’ to work, one has to understand the barriers behind why we women don’t examine ourselves regularly, or get ourselves examined regularly either. Has women’s health culturally and historically been of any importance in a patriarchal society like ours? Those are the issues to be addressed and broken down. What is the role of society around women prioritising their own care? Can we start with normalising the conversations around women’s health, women’s bodies and care? What is the role that language plays in that conversation? Those are the questions to ask and answer.
Not calling women’s breasts, oranges.

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Normalise the discussion so that women feel free to self-diagnose

Ajeeta Bharadwaj, Chief Strategy Officer, Wondrlab Network

Sometimes good intentions can also be misinformed and counterproductive. For all the people who objectify women or cross the line with suggestive talk, there are also people who believe that being respectful to a woman implies tiptoeing around any references to her body or her sexuality or any ‘indecent’ topic. Instead, they resort to proxies, symbolism and even ‘virtuous innuendos’. Remember the time when Bollywood movies used symbolism to show people getting intimate? – the lotus and the bee, the kissing and vibrating flowers, milk boiling over to show uncontrolled passion, Roman statues to show the female body.

The problem is that when you don’t say things the way they are, you are in fact saying that there is something shameful about them. That they need to be hidden away, barely acknowledged, certainly not discussed with someone else.

Viewed from a woman’s self-esteem, this is bad enough, but viewed through the lens of her health, it is downright disastrous. If a woman believes that there is something shameful in checking her own body or having a candid conversation on a worrying symptom, then she is being set up for failure. India is currently the world’s cancer capital and the three most common cancers – breast cancer, cervical cancer and ovarian cancer; impact women. But cancer screening rates are abysmal.

We have to quickly, find a way of approaching women’s health in a sensitive manner that doesn’t sexualize a body part, but at the same time, normalize the discussion so that she feels free to self-diagnose, do timely screening, seek help and in general, reclaim her health.