Breast Cancer Awareness Ad Cleverly Avoids Obscenity Censorship By Using Man Boobs Instead — #ManBoobs4Boobs Campaign Goes Viral


A charity that works to raise awareness about breast cancer has cleverly circumvented obscenity censorship protocols deployed by social media sites.

Raising breast cancer awareness always hits a snag when social media platforms are used. Owing to strict censorship laws, the videos that explain the much-needed but oft forgotten breast self-examination has the most critical aspect obscured from view. However, an Argentinian Breast Cancer charity, Movimiento Ayuda Cáncer de Mama (MACMA), or Breast Cancer Help Movement, in association with creative agency DAVID, has come up with a unique idea to get their message across without challenging the censorship protocols.

Breast Cancer Awareness Ad Cleverly Avoids Obscenity Censorship By Using Man Boobs Instead- #ManBoobs4Boobs Campaign Goes Viral
[Image via YouTube Screenshot]

Wide censorship across social media sites prevents showing of women’s breasts — nipples in particular — in all their natural glory. Even if the video is meant to stress the importance of regular and close inspection of the breasts to detect lumps, which might be first signs of breast cancer, any video that contains bare breasts is quickly pulled down and the uploading person, company, or charity is served with a stern warning. Repeat offenders risk a permanent ban on their accounts.

Hence, instead of using actual female breasts, which social media sites are quick to draw a veil of censorship over and penalize the uploader, the breast cancer awareness charity used male breasts or “man boobs,” which is an increasingly common phenomenon in overweight or obese men. While men do not have the exact same mammary glands, visually both are quite similar and also share the same anatomical features.

The Buenos Aires-based non-profit charity compiled a video to highlight the importance breast self-examination and uploaded it to Facebook, reported Metro. Needless to say, the rather bizarre but informative video has gone viral and has garnered more than eight million views in just four days.

https://www.facebook.com/MacmaOficial/videos/840952449367454/

The video offers a simple hands-on approach to check for any irregularity or lumps in the breast tissue. Initially, the imagery consists of a naked woman with her breasts covered with logos of popular social media platforms. The video narrator then offers a simple explanation why there are is a pair of man boobs instead of female breasts.

“Women’s boobs, particularly their nipples, are censored in certain social networks, even when showing breast self-examinations to detect early breast cancer. But we found boobs that aren’t censored: Henry’s.”

Thereafter, a man steps in front of the camera, and the woman standing behind him continues to educate women how to conduct a thorough but quick self-examination to find any suspicious lumps, which might be an early indicator of breast cancer, reported Little Black Book Online.

If detected early on, breast cancer victims have several options for treatment. Moreover, breast cancer is completely curable, but the delay in detection can be disastrous, often mandating complete removal of the mammary glands, leaving behind a scar. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get young women to check their breasts regularly, said a spokesperson for DAVID.

“It’s hard to get women over 25 to examine their breasts regularly to prevent breast cancer. But it isn’t hard to make them check their phones every five minutes. That is when we bumped into another problem: breasts are not very welcome; they are censored. That is where ‘#ManBoobs4Boobs’ comes in; a health-related campaign that requires men to partake in order to succeed.”

Gender-specific nudity policies have given rise to the #FreeTheNipple movement, which promotes gender equality and protests the over-sexualization of women’s bodies, reported the Huffington Post.

Interestingly, Facebook has been embroiled in many such cases of censorship but has recently amended its policies to “allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring.” Instagram has similar policies too that it amended in 2014.

[Image via YouTube Screenshot]

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