Emily Mitchell
January 8, 2024
Today, social media plays a major part in our society, in every aspect so why not use it to spread awareness while using user mobilization to help the message spread and go viral. With social media being at everyone’s fingertips, posts, videos, campaigns, etc. go viral within seconds. For me, it still blows my mind how fast videos and posts go viral in less than 24 hours. The internet and social media is such a power place for marketers.
One campaign that took off on Facebook was for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On Facebook there were two campaigns got a lot of traction. The first one was when women would get a private message that asked to put their name and the color of their bra that they were currently wearing as their status. (L Meghan Mahoney & Tang, 2017) I can honestly say I never heard of this one- but I was only in middle school around this time. The way this campaign did not have a clear message to any one who did not know what was going on, confuses me as to why it was so secretive.
Another Facebook status came about when another message got sent to women to change their status to where they would like to keep their purse, like, “I like it behind the couch” or “I like it on the floor.” (L Meghan Mahoney & Tang, 2017 ) This status change was also to spread awareness about Breast Cancer; however, it very much sexualized the meme, which gained more traction and more and more people started to participate.
However, after reading and looking more into these specific memes, I question how the message of spreading awareness about breast cancer and changing your status to your name and bra color or where you like your purse to be. Personally, I don’t see why the message needs to be so secretive and why does it seem like you need to decode the status. The message should have been clearer to the viewers, which would’ve gained more attention and to help click the button below to either donate to the Breast Cancer Foundation or learn more about how you can raise awareness today.
When creating a campaign to create a meaningful message to create awareness, the message needs to be clear and to everyone. There are many powerful campaigns that have gone viral and have a great impact for the cause because there is no confusion to what the campaign is raising awareness for.
A great example of a success campaign is the viral Ice Bucket Challenge! The ice bucket challenge was created by three young men in 2014 who encouraged people to dump ice water over their heads and post a video online. These young men wanted to raise awareness of a terrible disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and ended up grabbing the attention of millions around the world with over 17 million people uploading a video to Facebook in just 2014! (Levy, 2017) The reason this trend/ campaign took off so well was because everyone knew what the message was and wanted to help in understanding more about this disease that is more popular than anyone originally realized with over 20,000 living with ALS at any given time. (Levy, 2017)
As social media trends and campaigns continue to evolve, I believe that it’s easier to motivate people to contribute to different causes. However, in order for it to be successful, there has to be a clear message or else no one will know what’s going on or what the campaign is about.
Reference:
National Breast Cancer Foundation. (2022). Breast Cancer Awareness Month. National Breast Cancer Foundation. https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-awareness-month/
Levy, H. B. (2017, August 16). Redeeming Value of Social Media: How the Ice Bucket Challenge Invigorated the ALS Association – The CPA Journal. The CPA Journal. https://www.cpajournal.com/2017/08/16/redeeming-value-social-media-ice-bucket-challenge-invigorated-als-association/
L Meghan Mahoney, & Tang, T. (2017). Strategic social media : from marketing to social change. Wiley-Blackwell.
One response to “Cyberactivism: How Well Did It Work For Breast Cancer Awareness on FaceBook?”
-
Hey Emily,
This was a great blog! I completely agree that the message did not need to be so secretive. However, I still enjoyed the fun and mystery surrounding it. How do you feel about the fact that they left out men in their breast cancer campaigns, especially since men can also get breast cancer?I also remember participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge. It received much media attention, and everyone was participating in it. The more cyber activism is explored, the more awareness organizations can bring to their causes.
LikeLike
My Blog 
Leave a comment