Background 

For 20 years, the Marie Keating Foundation has been a strong advocate for breast self-examination, encouraging women to check their breasts regularly for early signs of cancer.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month seemed like the perfect time for them to remind women of the importance of breast self-awareness. Problem is, it’s also the perfect time for every other organisation and brand.

Our brief was to rise above the ‘sea of pink’ and have the Marie Keating Foundation’s simple message heard over the brands clamouring for attention during this month.

The creative idea 

The likelihood was that Marie Keating Foundation’s message would be drowned out during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

We turned this problem into an opportunity by creating a message designed to go unnoticed.

Our idea was to get the public to experience how easy it is to miss signs of breast cancer if you’re not looking for it, with a simple activation in the centre of Dublin.

We secretly placed a lump on the breasts of Dublin’s iconic Molly Malone statue to see if anyone would notice.

The strategy 

While the execution itself was in public for anyone to discover, the message - ultimately delivered through our online film that revealed the stunt - was aimed squarely at women, age 25 and up.

We are living at a turning point in culture where women are advocating for themselves and challenging the things in society that threaten it. This self-awareness is empowering. We wanted to demonstrate to women that threats aren’t always external - and that we need to start looking after ourselves by paying attention to ourselves. By being self-aware in a very literal sense, they have the power to save their own lives.

We aimed to connect our target audience with the reveal film via trusted online sources at ‘bra off’ time - between 9pm and 12pm - when women are relaxing, indulging in self care, or getting changed for bed. This was identified by the Marie Keating Foundation as an opportune time to perform a quick breast check.

Describe the execution

Molly Malone is an iconic statue in Dublin’s city centre, whose breasts are touched by thousands daily for good luck. We recognised this as the perfect opportunity to hide our message in plain sight.

We secretly placed a lump on Molly’s s breasts. The lump, designed to be noticable when pointed out, went completely unnoticed by the public.

Despite constant touching over the course of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Molly’s lump was never identified. On the last day of the month, the Marie Keating Foundation revealed their stunt to the public with an online film, urging women to #TakeNotice.

List the results 

The activation received over €12 million in earned media around the world.

The activation instantly transformed Molly into a breast cancer awareness symbol in Ireland, sparking national and international conversation about breast self-examination.