A tried and true (if tedious) bait and switch routine to draw attention to a serious issue.
Synchronicity is a weird and wonderful thing. Here I was talking about the my own promiscuous use of the F-bomb this week, and now a non-profit uses it as part of an advertising campaign in order to be relevant to the Gen Y demographic:
Fuck Cancer [according to the non-profit's website] saves lives by teaching people how to look for cancer, instead of just find it. We change the way cancer society perceives cancer by challenging the stigma and the victim mentality. We shift the balance of power from the cancer to the patient, and turn “patients” into “cancer Fuckers”, fighters, and survivors.
I’m not very convinced, though, that “Fuck Cancer” as an advertising slogan — in the hope, it seems, that the concept will be go viral over social media — will be very effective. Attention getting, maybe, but in the end it feels too much like slacktivism: just point and click to a warm fuzzy. What do you think?
