NRJ Belgium and Pink Ribbon Belgium's DJ Techniques Help Young Women Detect Breast Cancer

It is often thought that breast cancer only affects women over the age of 40, but almost 5% of all breast cancer cases occur in younger women. Unfortunately, teenage girls and young women show little concern, or, at least, are not aware of breast self-examination procedures. Ogilvy Social.Lab developed #MixForBoobs for NRJ Belgium and Pink Ribbon Belgium to address this issue.

#MixForBoobs is an original campaign and an educational programme based on a simple but unpublicised fact: the scratching techniques used by DJs to mix on vinyl decks are identical to the self-examination techniques that all women must learn to detect breast cancer. This idea of using the codes of vinyl scratching in a playful and relevant way to raise awareness of breast self-examination among a younger audience immediately appealed to NRJ Belgium.

"When Ogilvy Social.Lab presented us with the idea, we were immediately seduced. Since then, we have worked together, hand in hand, to bring this project to fruition in the middle of a pandemic. The task wasn’t easy, but the teams didn’t give up: They were aware that we had in our hands a real idea full of meaning for the NRJ brand and its listeners", says Laure Di Francesco, head of communication at NRJ.

Christophe Crasselts, chief growth officer at Ogilvy Social.Lab, adds: "When you know that 90% of women detect breast cancer themselves, you realise how important it is to educate people about self-care. But how can we induce this reflex from an early age? This is the challenge we decided to take on with #MixForBoobs – by completely renewing the usual codes of prevention campaigns."

Under the supervision of the medical experts of Pink Ribbon Belgium, Ogilvy Social.Lab and NRJ Belgium have produced two double vinyl albums to support the demonstration of self-care techniques. The albums contain a new song, the different tracks of which correspond to the time needed for each self-care gesture, and the lyrics of which serve as instructions for use while stressing the importance of screening.  

To visualise the techniques, the agency and the radio station also shot a video clip showing artists and influencers learning self-checks using the discs. Video tutorials on social networks and on the NRJ Belgium website explain the right gestures in a playful way and invite each woman to reproduce them in front of her mirror to detect the nine warning signs of breast cancer in time.

The #MixForBoobs campaign will be launched on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the French and Dutch websites of NRJ Belgium from October 1st, with the support of Clara Luciani, Typh Barrow, Julie Taton and many other artists and influencers, to reach as many young women as possible. A video clip, tutorials, testimonials from a medical expert and breast cancer survivors explain the steps and remind us that breast cancer strikes at any age.

Many elements of the campaign, including a unique TikTok challenge, have been designed to be highly participatory and easy to share. Indeed, the more women see #MixForBoobs, the more of them will master breast self-examination and the nine warning signs... which we hope will help save lives.

The guests:

• Clara Luciani
• Typh Barrow
• Charles
• Saskia
• Aurélie Van Daelen
• Gaëlle Van Rosen
• Julie Taton
• Shalimar Debru
• Audrey Piolé
• Julie Vermeire
• Noortje Palmers
• DJ Lady G