Love Your Butt
Awareness Campaign
Change the Narrative
We were challenged with broaching an often-awkward subject of colon cancer in a manner that was both attention-grabbing and respectful. Our goal was to create a truly fresh campaign that not only emphasized the importance of colorectal screening, but also encouraged people to become more comfortable discussing an uncomfortable subject. For three years in a row, we felt honored to have been such an integral part of the wildly-popular and super-successful awareness campaign that was Love Your Butt.
Year One
In order to keep the campaign light-hearted yet memorable, we took a bit of a cheeky approach. Using synonyms for the word “butt”, the campaign urged people to “love your butt” and “no matter what you call it, have it checked.”
Hands forming hearts were flipped upside down to resemble “butt shapes” and each set of hands held various euphemisms for the word butt. The human element drew the consumer in and words such “patooty” and “badonkadonk” intrigued anyone in their paths and invited them to learn more. Outdoor advertising blanketed several select US cities.
The hands became a rallying symbol within the colon cancer community and the t-shirts were a huge hit!
For the PSA we invited a variety of members from the colon cancer community to join us in an “interview” style video. Participants were under the impression that they would be answering questions about the horrible disease, but little did they know, the questions were anything but cliché. After some generic questions to warm them up we surprised them with “what do you call your bottom”? The reactions were priceless and real and left us grinning from ear to ear.
Year Two
After a very successful first year, we had to up our game for the following year. A stylish new logo combined with very similar messaging, eye-catching and vibrant color and, of course, real-life butts!
According to popular legend, the heart-shape that we know today originated from the shape of the female buttocks. This universal symbol of love was transformed to serve as the icon for the Love Your Butt Colon Cancer Awareness Campaign. Butts, butts everywhere! Booties and patooties, tuchuses, and buns. On buses, and billboards, in subway stations and metro cars. From a keister in Times Square to a caboose in Hollywood. Throughout the month of March, The Love Your Butt campaign was seen coast to coast encouraging everyone to love their butts by promoting the importance of getting screened.
“Getting it checked” was made a whole lot easier just by entering a zip code to find the screening centers nearest you. #loveyourbutt allowed people to show their support through social media. Instagrammed photos of the Love Your Butt hand gesture were displayed on the website.
The PSA was filled with butts from all walks to help spread the message. A ballerina, a cowboy, a golfer, and even Santa shook their money-makers to encourage viewers to get screened.
Year Three
The campaign for Year Three, while still featuring backsides, focused on the relationships of the people attached to them. By adding a sobering statistic, we hoped to shed light on the seriousness of the disease and encourage people to actually get screened - not just feel more comfortable talking about the colon cancer.
In an effort to balance out a scary statistic in the PSA’s messaging, we featured the whimsical style of animation to help us support the message: if it could save your life, why wouldn’t you get screened for colon cancer? It’s as obvious as looking both ways before crossing the street.
