Breast Cancer Now Spotlights the Things People with Cancer Leave Unsaid in New Campaign

Breast Cancer Now, the research and support charity, is launching a campaign that draws attention to things people living with breast cancer often don’t speak about. 

“Left Unsaid” is the next chapter of the charity’s “Real Talk” campaign, created by BMB. The new work will run alongside the original TV spot, highlighting that the charity is the place to turn to for anything and everything to do with breast cancer. These brand-new social media spots encourage people to open up conversations about the subject. 

The work is inspired by real people living with breast cancer and their stories and experiences. It’s a truth that many people in this situation often shy away from talking completely honestly and openly, because they don’t want to burden others, the topic feels taboo or they worry people simply won’t understand.

The campaign will run through August until the end of September - across TV, Online, YouTube, Social, BVOD, Digital, Spotify and Radio - in the lead up to Breast Cancer Awareness month which begins on 1 October.

The “Left Unsaid” campaign is made up of a mixture of live action films, typographic videos and still assets, and covers a range of topics around breast cancer, such as how to talk about it to children, the difficulties of truly opening up to friends and family, how it can affect sex and intimacy and body image and the reality of being given an incurable secondary breast cancer diagnosis. 

The live action social ads subvert the format of films on social media and the auto generating captions. They begin with a real person living with breast cancer looking straight down the camera lens, putting on a brave face and saying the sort of thing you would expect somebody to say. “I’m feeling pretty good.” Subtitles appear on screen repeating the line, but then the person continues to look straight at the camera, staying completely silent. However, the subtitles continue and reveal just what’s really going on inside their head. “If by good you mean absolutely exhausted all the time. Not just from the chemo, just the stress of it all. What I wouldn’t give to think about something other than breast cancer. Just an evening where I feel myself again.” The films were directed by Adrian-Florin Ardelean.

Supporting the live action social ads are a series of typographic social ads which focus purely on words, or more specifically, the missing words. We see a simple sentence such as “Mummy will be ok,” but with huge spaces in between the words suggesting there’s a longer sentence hidden there. Some ads leave the missing words completely unsaid, leaving the viewer to try and fill in the blanks. Others animate revealing the truth hidden behind the sentence.  

All the spots end with the message: “For all the things left unsaid, we’re here.” The campaign encourages people who might be worried about or experiencing breast cancer to turn to the charity and find the support for whatever they are going through.

Deanne Gardner, associate director, brand, marketing & communications, at Breast Cancer Now, said, “With this campaign, we are inviting people who might be worried about or experiencing breast cancer to turn to us and find the support they need whatever they are going through. We’re here to help - online, on the phone or in person.”

Jack Snell and Joe Lovett, senior creatives at BMB, said, “Working closely with people who are living with breast cancer, we’ve aimed to highlight their concerns and the kinds of things they struggle to talk about. We hope this work can help people find the words to express what they are going through.”

BMB has created a series of successful campaigns for Breast Cancer Now, including the award winning “The Chat”, the UK’s first drama series to play out in a group chat in a messaging app, “Stories of Secondary”, a moving short film exploring what life is like for people living with secondary breast cancer and the “Gallery of Hope”, a photography exhibition held at the Saatchi gallery and online,​ made in collaboration with real people living with incurable secondary breast cancer, ​to remind us of the true value of time.​ Through combining AI and photography, the exhibition created snapshots of future moments.​The agency’s first work for the charity, “Real Talk”, encouraged people to talk more openly about breast cancer.