Pink is everywhere this month. That’s an understatement in my own town of Charleston, SC where urgent care provider HealthFirst has completely dominated the roadways with pink billboards. The ads were developed by Hook, one of my absolute favorite agencies. And as Hook usually does, the headlines are unexpected, funny, and right on target. The agency had this to say about the campaign:
HealthFirst asked Hook to create an outdoor campaign to help promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month and encourage women to get an exam. As with HealthFirst’s previous outdoor campaigns, the “pink” boards maintain the brand’s warm, friendly personality, which helps make a serious matter a little less frightening.
Most of the breast cancer awareness support ads I’ve seen are pretty basic with a “so-and-so supports breast cancer awareness” type of message. Hell, I’ve even created some myself. But Hook’s work reminds me that a business can show support, be memorable, and make people chuckle at the same time.
As a campaign to encourage a test or screening, these billboards have the perfect tone. They put viewers at ease about the whole procedure. A while back I wrote about colon cancer screening billboards that had the right tone but were taken down because someone thought they were in poor taste. For shame. They would have been memorable enough to spark conversation about an uncomfortable but life-saving screening.