Facebook stunt purports to promote a charity cause with flirty status updates
"I like it on the floor."
"I like it on the kitchen counter."
"I like it on the coffee table."
If you haven't seen this yet on your Facebook, you will. It's the latest meme to hit your news feed: Ladies are updating their statuses to let all their friends know where they like to put their handbags (obviously) when they get home, which (obviously) is intended to promote breast cancer awareness.
Wait, what did you think they were talking about?
It's kind of like when last year's " what color is your bra " status updates went viral, in which Facebook's females posted just "black" or "pink," intending to raise breast cancer awareness. This year, an e-mail is circulating around Facebook inboxes asking women to update their status with " where we put our handbag the moment we get home."
The handbag-breast cancer link is even more inexplicable than the bra colors, but it seems that suddenly, breast cancer awareness is sexy. That's also the idea behind the Save the Ta-Tas brand, which sells silly T-shirts, accessories and a line of skin care products it calls Boob Lube. And The Keep A Breast Foundation uses this tactic, too, with its "I love boobies" wristbands, which were banned last month at a South Dakota high school .
But there is some evidence that the wink-wink approach to a cancer awareness campaign actually works, at least a little bit. Through sales of Save the Ta-Tas' cheeky products, the brand has donated $515,000 to "helping end cancer," according to its website.
During last year's "what color is your bra" Facebook stunt, a spokeswoman for Susan G. Komen for the Cure says the site did experience an uptick in visits to its website, www.komen.org. They haven't seen any change in traffic this year, yet, but the website behind it all does direct curious visitors to the websites for the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
"We think this plants a seed, especially with young people, to first get involved and educated. Awareness is a huge part of Susan G. Komen for the Cure's mission," says Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for the breast cancer charity organization. "We know that these campaigns generate a certain amount of buzz and hype, especially in media, so they may be effective in reaching different kinds of audiences."
She adds, "Komen tends to avoid jargon and lingo for breasts — we encourage people to get involved and take action."
Meanwhile, here are more places where real, live people like "it": the kitchen chair, the corner of my desk at work, my backpack, on top of the washing machine, on my bedroom floor, in the car, in da basement, in the backseat of my car, on the jacuzzi and on the kitchen sink.
It must be asked: Really, you like your purse on the kitchen sink? Really, you like your purse on the jacuzzi? You're just messy. Clean up your house, and then maybe donate some cash to help fight breast cancer.
Via MSN
msnbc.com msnbc.com
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