Food Lover’s Market, Grid Worldwide, and the Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa) have joined hands in a national campaign appealing to shoppers to check their breasts as often as they check out their fruit and vegetables to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Check Them Out campaign will see the fresh produce aisles of all Food Lover’s Market and Food Lover’s Eatery stores across the country brandished with cheeky stickers to remind women to perform home self-examinations to spot lumps, bumps, and other irregularities that could be signs of breast cancer.
The campaign aims to get a good reaction from shoppers, and another objective is to drive proactive cancer screening, as women treated for early breast cancer are likely to become long-term survivors, as reported in a study published in 2023 by medical research group The BMJ.
“In addition to quirky stickers on fruits and vegetables, the Check Them Out campaign also takes the form of rebranded shopping bags and in-store promotional posters that detail how to conduct a self-examination,” said Terri Coppin Harris, a head of culture and communication at Food Lover’s Market.
“In-store and campaign artwork directs ladies to the Cansa page for further information and crucial next steps should they find something suspicious,” Coppin-Harris said.
Coppin-Harris said that as a retailer that holds fast to strong family values, they could not pass on the chance to weigh in and support the campaign.
“Breast cancer is still listed as the top invasive cancer reported for South African women, and this made us realise that it can so easily affect our shoppers and team members. We loved the idea of creating a bold reminder in our stores to educate our customers and our team about self-examination and screening.
“While shoppers will be reminded to ‘check out their melons’ and ‘feel their avos’ through stickers on selected seasonal fruit, Food Lover’s Market has elevated the campaign in-house by creating an equally strong awareness campaign to engage and inform all Food Lover’s Market team members on the importance of preventative screenings,” Coppin-Harris said.
Lorraine Govender, National Manager, Health Promotion at Cansa, added that these three organisation are raising awareness in a proactive, meaningful way and delivering on the message that early detection is critical.
“We want to urge everyone to be aware of their own bodies, look out for anything unusual, and get checked out early; it could save your life,” Govender said.
Meanwhile, Lauren Shewitz, creative director at Grid Worldwide, said, "As a team, we wanted to create a relevant, memorable, and impactful campaign that not only created awareness but also brought meaning to marketing, with the ultimate objective of saving lives.”
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