INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

‘Hold A Coke With Your Boobs Challenge’ Insults, Appropriates Breast Cancer Victims [Opinion]

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 10:40 PST, Jun 7, 2015

The Inquisitr recently reported about the social media campaign that was instigated as a joke, and allegedly morphed into a breast cancer awareness campaign using the hashtag #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge. Apparently, Danny Frost and Gemma Jaxx created the social media frenzy that has somehow inspired women to put a bottle of Coca-Cola in between their breasts. Amazingly, this joshing duo are claiming that, given its popularity, they thought, “Why not do something good with this,” and decided to embrace the assertions that it’s all in good charity.

On a Facebook page, Frost and Jaxx explain the evolution of what, they purport, started by making fun of charity-devoted social media challenges.

“We started the challenge as a joke. We were making fun of all these other challenges. We never thought it would take off, but it did. People started posting that it was for a breast cancer awareness charity, and we thought why not do something good with this, so we went with it.”

How could posting images of bare-breasted women with coke between their boobs raise awareness about breast cancer? Besides offering Coke (which incidentally contains an ingredient believed to be carcinogenic) free marketing, this campaign essentially does nothing but insult women with breast cancer. It does nothing but shove healthy breasts into the faces women who may be dealing with the loss of their own breasts.

I wouldn’t have been fazed by boobs holding Coke bottles plastered all over Twitter. It became a problem when the challenge switched gears and began tagging #breastcancer. The creators’ Facebook page “went with it” and added a little blurb about remembering to get a mammogram.

Though it’s being heralded as a spontaneous awareness campaign, the only awareness coming from the #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge comes from people enraged at the audacity of the so-called charity campaign’s appropriation of breast cancer victims.

While Playboy appears to support the #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge, calling it “the sexiest breast cancer awareness campaign to date,” breast cancer isn’t sexy. In fact, it’s insulting and offensive to women struggling with their own sexual image in the face of cancer to purport that this adult entertainment-inspired campaign is supporting breast cancer awareness and research. Combining the hashtags #breastcancer and #HoldACokeWithYourBoobsChallenge is, frankly, just plain mean.

I realize that disregarding the potential donations raised from this impromptu charity campaign enrages its creators, even though they only started it to make fun of other campaigns raising money to fight serious, debilitating and life threatening diseases. After all, on the official Facebook page, Frost and Jaxx made it really clear to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation how mad they were. The BCRF actually reached out to the Inquisitr after the earlier article was posted to make it clear that the charity does not support the Hold A Coke With Your Boobs Challenge, will not accept donations raised from the campaign, recognizes breast cancer as “a serious global health issue that impacts millions of women and men around the world,” and believes “that breast cancer should not be trivialized.”

Here’s what Frost and Jaxx had to say to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

“F— you for saying our money is not good enough. F— you denying researchers the proper funding because of your values. F— you for denying treatment to a cancer patient because the money to help that person was coming from people with a soda can between their t—… Let me tell you what really happens when people see your ads and public serves announcements. If it’s in a magazine, we turn the page to the next article. If it pops up on a web page, we close it, push skip ad, or ignore it if it’s off to the side. If it’s on TV, we change the channel, go get something to eat, or go to the bathroom. Point being, In today’s world, most people don’t give a f— about stuck up ads and public serves announcements.”

That really is the point, isn’t it? Too many people sincerely don’t care.

It’s despicable that parts of our society are so boob-centric that recognizing the difference between insensitivity and charity apparently becomes difficult the moment an ample bosom is pictured. Additionally, how can anyone assert that funds for breast cancer research are more important than protecting the psyches of the the very same women that research foundation strives to save?

A heartfelt post on the Facebook page Stupid Dumb Breast Cancer (where the hauntingly authentic featured photo for this article originated from) demonstrates how insidious insensitivity towards suffering people can be in our culture.

“At school a kid made a joke about cancer and no one in the class found it funny. My son however given what we are going through chucked his pen at the kid! Now while I don’t agree with this behavior I totally understand. I wanted to chuck a coke can at some people this week! Think before you make jokes people. What is heart breaking to me is that my son was so hurt by this stupid joke. Cancer took his innocent mind and I freaking hate that.”

Women with breast cancer are faced with losing their breasts to the disease, worse yet, their lives. The Hold A Coke With Your Boobs Challenge simply spits in their faces.

[Photo Credit: Stupid Dumb Breast Cancer on Facebook]

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