Well, the world’s turned pink—again. Every October, the internet, grocery aisles, hardware stores, beauty counters, football fields, and even cement trucks turn pink.
While many of these products do support recognized charities—many don’t. And if they do, it’s a teeny tiny donation back. Is that pink car window scraper that doesn’t include a donation to a breast cancer charity still out there? I really hope not.
If you know me, you know I love me some pink. While I was never one to don the baby pink ribbon, all my life I’ve worn a lot of pink. I loved pink before starting this charity. And I continue to today, which makes me extra salty that a colour I love got associated with bad corporate practices. Authentic cause marketing is a crucial revenue stream for charities. (Especially ones of our size that don’t have hospital wings to cultivate super wealthy donors to be named after.) And we love our cause marketing partners, many of whom have supported Rethink for years in incredibly intentional ways, collaborating with us on authentic messaging. It’s just annoying that pinkwashing is still allowed. The community has helped by pushing back over the years and calling out the bad actors. Together, we’ve been able to reclaim pink.
But my bigger frustration with Breast Cancer Awareness Month goes beyond the shade of pink. It’s the enormous gap between vague awareness of breast cancer and the reality of the experience. Awareness doesn’t equal understanding. And without understanding, there’s no action. But between the changing media landscape, our ever-shortening attention spans (apparently 7 seconds?), and the increasing complexity of breast cancer and its treatment, it’s no wonder that what’s typically served up in October is an onslaught of over-simplified messages about hope, the “battle” (alt” “the fight”), and finding a cure. The breast cancer community can feel alienated by messaging that doesn’t reflect their reality. And the general public is left without the understanding to take meaningful action. That includes not understanding how to actually show up for someone who’s been diagnosed.
Enter Give-A-Care: The perfect antidote to everything I’ve just complained about.
We’ve got A LOT going on this month, but we’re kicking off October with the refresh and relaunch of our beloved Give-A-Care program. What I love most about this program is that it bridges the gap in understanding between the breast cancer community and their friends, extended family, and colleagues who want to show up in a meaningful way but could use a little guidance.
It’s hard to know the right thing to say or do when someone is diagnosed with breast cancer. Give-A-Care helps people show up in a meaningful way with practical gifts and advice based on the experience of women who’ve been through it.
A little history
Just over a decade ago, Rethink conducted the first-ever national quantitative needs assessment to understand the experience of young women with breast cancer. Over 560 women with breast cancer took our survey. The findings validated the gaps in care that we’d been hearing about on the ground through our community support programs. It also provided the evidence needed to make a change. That led to Rethink creating The Top 10 Care Priorities for Young Women with Breast Cancer. We received input and buy-in from oncologists, surgeons, and psychologists along the way before presenting them at major international breast cancer conferences, where they were very well received. So, we were excited to “roll them out” to be adopted by cancer centres across the country.
ROADBLOCK AHEAD!
Despite endorsement from individual healthcare professionals, implementing our Care Priorities in cancer centres was a challenge. Provincial cancer agencies said they already had cancer treatment guidelines. We certainly didn’t want to step on any toes. But we were constantly meeting women who hadn’t been told about fertility preservation, reconstruction options, or the impact on sexual and mental health. Women who were not connected with financial resources, or resources for young families. Who were not offered a counselor, or palliative care if metastatic. And who were not referred to Rethink, where they could connect with others like them.
We were blocked by bureaucracy. So, we had to get creative.
We turned to the creative agency Lg2 for support in amplifying our Care Priorities while we advocated behind the scenes at the cancer system level. That way, we could at least immediately get the Care Priorities on the radar of any young, newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.
Truth be told, I was expecting some kind of a PSA. Instead, LG2 pitched Give-A-Care: a unique product line for cancer patients to shine a light on the Care Priorities. Care packages sent out to newly diagnosed patients would include a free copy of our Care Priorities booklet. We loved it so much, we immediately set our sights on taking it from a marketing stunt to creating a sustainable program.
Give-A-Care launched in 2016 and was a huge success, garnering extensive media coverage about the gaps in care for young people with cancer, the difficulty navigating the experience, and the importance of cancer patients feeling truly understood by friends and loved ones. It’s also accumulated over 50 awards, including two highly coveted Cannes Lions. We found ourselves sending Give-A-Care packages around the world.
Why was it so good? There are many reasons. A super talented team worked on it, led by creative directors Nellie Kim and Chris Hirsch. But beyond talent and drive, their approach was truly thoughtful. They listened to us, and to our community. There were focus groups—several throughout the process. Give-A-Care was truly a collaboration between the agency, Rethink, and members of our community. Lg2 set the bar very high for me in terms of a best-in-class approach to working with a creative agency on a campaign or project. The impact is worth the effort!
Meet Give-A-Care 2.0
Give-A-Care has been operating ever since it first went out into the world, but now, we’re prioritizing it. Why?
Because 10 years later, it is clearer now more than ever that it’s needed. Treatment for breast cancer is evolving, and the understanding of how different breast cancers behave is deepening. When we launched in 2016, most young women diagnosed had surgery, radiation, and chemo. Now, genomic tests are run at the time of diagnosis that can determine whether someone will benefit from chemo or not. At the same time, as we’re seeing more stage 1, we’ve also seen an increase in stage 4—a de novo metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. So, we’ve added products that reflect the evolving treatment landscape. Plus, products that leverage current cultural conversations—hello, cooling pajamas to address premature menopause symptoms!
We also realized we were missing a big opportunity to use Give-A-Care to connect the gift recipient with our community of care, resources, and all the great support programming we do. Our new site allows us to lightly let the gift recipient know that we’re here for them if they need support. Speaking of support, we’ve also launched our new blog. This allows us to provide more guidance for both people newly diagnosed with breast cancer, and their support network.
Finally, (to bring this BCAM blog post full circle) it remains obvious that we still have a lot of work to do to bridge the gap in understanding between the general public and the reality of the experiences of our community. And Give-A-Care is the perfect way to do just that. Because what’s better than “awareness” through a sea of pink? Products that actually help women get through treatment, curated by women who’ve been through it. Paired with tips and guidance to help friends and family understand how to show up in a meaningful way. That’s why we started Give-A-Care in 2016, and almost 10 years later, it became clear how much it’s still needed. So, we’re excited to reintroduce you to our new collection this BCAM. And to give the community real, measurable care that actually helps with treatment. No pink ribbons or pink toilet paper required. 💗
Some HUGE Thank Yous
Thanks to the generous fundraising efforts of Tamara Bahry and Rethink Key Collaborator, Melyssa Holister, our small Rethink team was able to put in the many hours needed to refresh Give-A-Care and create the campaign supporting its launch. We got some extra support from Gilead that really helped, too.
Throughout the process, Alison Lawler-Dean, a Rethink Board Member, has championed and encouraged us, having worked on the team at the time of the launch. At that time, Give-A-Care, from a Rethink team perspective, was her baby! While not hands-on this time around, her energy and support at the Board level were instrumental. She played a significant role in last year’s strategic work and the focus groups that laid the groundwork for today’s launch. And picking up the torch on the strategy side for the marketing campaign over the past few months has been Elizabeth Takisaki, who’s donated countless hours of her talent and experience to strategically ground our creative.
We’ve conducted numerous focus groups in the months leading up to this relaunch, working closely with several of Rethink’s Key Collaborators and others in the breast cancer community to gather insights and develop our new products. Through the focus groups, we’ve generated numerous content and product ideas to pursue for at least a year, if not more. An extra shout-out to Rethink Key Collaborator, Aya McMillan, who’s donated countless additional hours of her talent to this effort and is our Give-A-Care blog columnist extraordinaire.
One thing we knew we didn’t want to change was the beautiful brand and tone. So, we engaged the original writer behind Give-A-Care, Ariel Riske, and our go-to branding, design, and creative director extraordinaire, Nathalie Cusson. Nathalie recruited photographer André Doyon and additional design support from Deborah Prenger, Gillian Parr, and animation by Nathalie Trivino. Thank you also to Kaytlyn Ryerson, who’s helped pull the new Shopify site together and is ready to rock its promotion.
And finally, a massive thank you to Debbie Benadiba from Talon. Debbie is a past Rethink Board Member (pre-Give-A-Care era) and is currently going through treatment for breast cancer. She works in media advertising and played her cancer card on our behalf to get $400,000 in digital advertising space donated to us this October. Thank you also to Eden Rotenburg and Izzy Cundari on the Talon Team. Talon is the reason there will be some nice bright pops of colour (other than pink) contributing to BCAM on billboards, trucks, restaurants, elevators, and even on top of taxis. We can’t wait to see it all over the gram and in the wild!
Check out what’s new on giveacare.ca via our profile link. 👀
And let me know what you think!
— MJ, Founder + Executive Director of Rethink Breast Cancer