Johnson & Johnson Uses Instagram Filters to Guide Breast Self-Examination

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, the consumer goods division from the world’s largest healthcare company, has made available on Instagram a special filter that helps with breast self-care as a way to help on the diagnosis of the type of cancer most common in women worldwide. With this technology, the mobile display becomes a mirror where a projected animation guides the right movements on the right spots of the breast. The filter can be accessed on the profile @jnjbrasil or via the link, which must be opened on the mobile phone.

The action is part of the campaign #VamosCuidar, by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, which invites people to reflect about the importance of care as the first step to a healthy life. The filter was released as an allusion to Pink October, a month of awareness about breast cancer, and will be available at the profile @jnjbrasil.

“Our mission is to take the science and innovation from Johnson & Johnson to people’s day to day lives, so they can take care of themselves and of people around them. This value, which guides us in product development, has led us to apply technology at service of women, so they can take care of themselves without doubts that they are doing the right way,” states Ricardo Wolff, vice-president of Strategy and Marketing from Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health.

Use and safety

Simply stand in front of the mobile phone and use the camera on selfie mode so that the filter works as a mirror and guides the self-examination, showing where and how to touch to examine the breasts. This feature also alerts about the types of changes that may be found.

“It is worth highlighting that the procedure does not replace a medical assessment and exams like the mammogram, but represents a relevant step for early diagnosis, especially at a time when the number of visits to doctor’s offices has decreased, due to the pandemic. The sooner it is discovered and treated, the higher the chances of cure,” highlights Wolff. 

The animations and information that lead the step-by-step have as technical reference the team of medical experts from Mentor, a brand of breast implants and tissue expanders from the Medical Devices division of Johnson & Johnson – which has a wide range of products and services targeted at surgical procedures.

The filter does not bring the term ‘self-examination’, but ‘self-care’, more appropriate because it represents a tool so that women can know their own body and breasts and act towards early diagnosis.

The device is accessed via Stories and the user does not need to log out from the social network to do the procedure. The technology ensures data security, since the environment does not register the images and does not store any data. If the user tries to record it, an automatic message that it is not possible to make videos will be displayed. She can simply use and, at the end, share the filter with her contacts in this social network.

“We want to encourage a chain of care so women take care of each other. For this reason, we included the option of sharing the filter, to further help women understand how and where the movements should be,” adds Wolff.

The feature was developed by the digital technology team from the agency Wunderman Thompson Brazil (Studio Click), from the Instagram platform. 

“The principle is of a smart mirror, which guides the user from her image reflected to touch correctly,” explains Keka Morelle, CCO of Wunderman Thompson, agency responsible for the idea.

"With the filter, we can learn by ourselves what movements to make, in an innovative way, putting into practice the attention to health and self-care, the key message from the campaign #VamosCuidar,” complements the executive.

Celebrities and influencers will participate on the filter release, disseminating the message of self-care and the chain for other women, and also informing how to use the filter on the @jnjbrasil profile.