I'm Going Commando
The Male Cancer Awareness Campaign (MCAC) is a new, but ambitious charity that is on a mission to tackle prostate, testicular and bowel cancer. Every year about 67,000 British men are diagnosed with these conditions but many are too embarrassed to discuss their symptoms. We knew that conventional advertising wouldn’t reach these guys (many charities had tried to in the past, and failed) so tackled the embarrassment head on, by making the issue very public and social.
On March 7th we asked the men of Britain to ditch their underpants for one day and wear a sticker on their arm instead. By ‘Going Commando’, they would be more aware of their bodies and by publicly wearing a sticker, they would be more likely to talk about the subject with friends and family.
Despite no spend (all media was either earned, owned or donated), we generated a huge amount of publicity. The editorial coverage alone reached a potential audience of 290M. The campaign also received over 36M Twitter impressions, boosted the charity’s Facebook traffic by 350% and increased website visits by 1400% (89% of them new to the charity). Loads of celebrities joined in, from John Prescott to Bill Bailey, Keith Lemon to Rizzle Kicks and Dermot O’Leary. And on the big day, over 65,000 men wore a sticker to declare that they were Going Commando. Most encouragingly, in a post- campaign survey, 40% of British men claimed that they’d be up for joining in next year.