Breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel! has unveiled a new ad campaign – in which, for the first time ever, images of naked breasts will be displayed in Britain’s public shopping areas.
The idea behind the attention-grabbing #whatnormalfeelslike campaign – launched to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness month throughout October – is to encourage women to better understand what normal ‘feels like’.
Of course, with this knowledge, women might sooner detect breast cancer. Another aim of the effort, according to CoppaFeel! is to normalise breasts, by helping women reclaim the vocabulary used to describe their bodies:The ads feature seven women’s boobs, each painted with a word they used to describe them, including ‘squidgy’, ‘doughy’ and ‘firm’. According to this Telegraph piece, the campaign follows months of research, during which women aged 18 to 30 were asked to describe their boobs. The majority struggled to find words other than ‘big’ or ‘small’.
Large versions of the ads will be displayed outdoors in London’s Westfield White City, St Enoch in Glasgow and the Cavern Quarter in Liverpool, on digital boards.
These are the first ads featuring nipples that the Advertising Standards Agency haven’t banned for sexualising women.