Obsessed with Breasts Public Awareness Campaign

In January 2000, the Breast Cancer Fund launched Obsessed With Breasts, a daring public awareness campaign that ignited controversy and comment around the world. 

At first glance, the large, full-color ads in San Francisco Bay Area bus shelters resemble ads by Victoria’s Secret, Cosmopolitan magazine and Obsession perfume. But a closer look reveals that the beautiful young models have mastectomy scars where breasts once were, scars superimposed from photographs of Breast Cancer Fund founder Andrea R. Martin’s chest.

Obsessed With Breasts was designed to lead viewers to the Breast Cancer Fund's Web site and other educational programs where they could connect with critical information and ways to become more involved in the issue. It was particularly relevant in the Bay Area, a region with one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the world.

Although images of women with partially and fully exposed breasts fill American media, the Breast Cancer Fund ads were censored by San Francisco and Santa Clara bus shelter officials who feared shocking the public. Outrage over the censorship generated hundreds of newspaper articles around the world, as well as thousands of e-mails and letters—four out of five of which supported the the Breast Cancer Fund campaign.

Thanks to the support of San Francisco Board of Supervisors led by Supervisor Mark Leno, Eller Media offered large billboard space in the city and one of the ads went up in May 2000 (see photo above).

As one reader of the San Francisco Examiner wrote in a letter to the editor, “Exposing real issues is the first step on the pathway toward real education—and toward real action by real women.”

More About the Campaign

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