But look closer at the posters
and you’ll see that these women are baring mastectomy scars — part of a
cancer-awareness campaign that is causing a stir in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We’re using a parody of icons, society’s icons of
sexuality that are always in our face,” said Andrea Martin, founder of The
Breast Cancer Fund, the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization heading the
campaign.
The poster-size ads went up in 37 bus
shelters in Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties about two weeks ago. They
feature Martin’s own double mastectomy-scarred chest superimposed on models’
bodies.
‘It’s No
Secret’
One ad, mimicking a Victoria’s Secret lingerie ad,
features a woman wearing a bra and panties exposing one scar. It reads: “It’s no
secret society is obsessed with breasts, but what are we doing about breast
cancer?”
Two posters came down after residents
complained. Outdoor Systems, the billboard company that had donated space for
the ads in 20 San Francisco bus shelters, has refused to use them.
“We found it to be unacceptable,” company
spokesperson Stephen Shinn said Wednesday.
Donated Time,
Work
The double-mastectomy scars in this photo belong to an
awareness-campaign organizer, not the model whose face and other body
parts are featured. (The Campaign for Breast
Cancer)
|
The models, photographer and
advertising agency all donated their time to make the posters. Martin, who
underwent her first mastectomy in 1989, said she’s glad the ads are getting
people talking.
“We did expect there to be a mixed
reaction, that’s why we did it,” said Martin, 53. “It’s very easy to lapse into
acceptance of something unacceptable.”
“I think
it’s daring and risky, but if it works well, then I congratulate them for doing
it,” said American Cancer Society spokesperson Joann Schellenbach.
Schellenbach added that the campaign would not
necessarily be appropriate for her organization, which prefers straightforward
educational messages. 
By Kim Curtis
