A campaign for breast cancer awareness in Changsha went awry when a Chinese TV presenter posed topless for bus stop advertisements and billboards with two other women. The campaign, titled “Clever Girls Love Themselves More,” drew flack from internet blogs and bulletin boards. However, the advertisments themselves are tasteful and make a positive point for women’s health. I’ve managed to scour up photos of the ads:

The prominent theme in the ads is L, for Love. The color and style are the classic “pink ribbon” that has represented the cause internationally for many years. The idea behind that campaign seems to be that women who love their bodies will be more careful about checking for breast cancer, etc. This is the only advertisement in which a breast is entirely exposed.

According to Yahoo News, Chen Dan, who posed for the awareness ads, later said:

“My intentions were good. I hoped to draw people’s attention to women’s health, but because the format was inappropriate it caused a huge backlash. In future I will choose more suitable ways of publicizing women’s health.”

A poster on an online forum offered the following criticism:

“This is a serious attack on women. It goes completely beyond the moral and aesthetic baseline.”

Personally, it bothers me a bit that women posing for a “love your body” or “breast cancer awareness” would get this kind of reaction anywhere.  Aren’t these three ladies the good guys?

5 Responses to “Breast Cancer Advertisement: Xu Jing, Chen Dan, Lisa”

1. Mark Solomon says:

   8/30/2006 at 7:32 am

   I know there are cultural differences to be taken into account, but I can’t understand the fuss here.

   If the UK is anything to go by, there is a problem getting women to take their ‘personal’ health seriously (I used to know one woman who had to literally be dragged in for annual checks) probably because of a fear of what you might find and also because – let’s face it – some medical practitioners have all the sensitivity of a warthog on speed.

   These women are presumably aspirational role models in China, so anything that gets women of any age to look after themselves rather than become premature mortality statistics is a good thing as far as I can tell.

   Reply
2. ariana says:

   10/4/2007 at 10:33 am

   http://www.schuebo.com/Spider_2004/ChaosCampany/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=2568

   Reply
3. Trisha says:

   1/12/2009 at 11:45 pm

   Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in women today. Around the world breast cancer statistics shows that after lung cancer breast cancer is the second most death-causing factor in people who develops cancer

   Reply
4. Healer says:

   1/15/2009 at 12:00 pm

   now this is something you dont see everyday

   Reply
5. zandora says:

   2/7/2009 at 1:05 am

   I dont think that exposing breast can really create awareness for breast cancer. People will see these photos for other reasons, not for awareness.

   Reply