Breast cancer awareness campaign launched by Samsung Electronics Europe

Sep 23 2009

Samsung Electronics Europe has launched ‘Everybody’s Doing It’, an online campaign and website which is a call to action encouraging women in Europe to check for breast cancer and prevent the disease from spreading. By visiting www.morethantalk.eu women can find an instant community of support, a place to make pledges to raise further awareness and a place to view or forward a short viral movie called ‘Everybody’s Doing It’; containing footage of eight women whose lives have been affected by breast cancer. The viral is intended to reach over 400,000 women - more than the number who are diagnosed with breast cancer in Europe every year.

Each woman in the viral can be seen with her arms across her chest, holding the gaze of the camera as it pans around to capture their image. The final message of the viral tells the viewer ‘Everybody’s Doing It: Join us on October 15^th 2009’. The date refers to the Samsung European Breast Cancer Awareness Day – a date for women to be breast aware and to pledge to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Two of the women are Amanda Jones, a 67 year old British woman whose daughter Rebecca died of breast cancer at the age of 33 and Emily Holt, aged 29, who was diagnosed last September.

Jaesun Yeon, 30, is a Samsung employee who has appeared in the viral. “I took part because a good friend is going through chemotherapy.

“I met some amazing women on the shoot, including Simone Francis who had a breast cancer scare when she was only 17. Social media and blogging has been a hugely important way for these women to talk about breast cancer and to tell others to check themselves, no matter what age they are. What Samsung has done, is to create a powerful online platform to spread this message across Europe.”

Ines Van Gennip, head of CSR at Samsung Electronics Europe added: “It’s so important that global brands such as Samsung use their influence to give women who advocate breast cancer awareness an even louder voice. This isn’t a disease that only affects older women, it can touch women of all ages and as many people as possible need to know.”

More than 400,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Europe each year. With support through Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, the ‘Everybody’s Doing It’ campaign aims to reach at least this many women in Europe. This level of awareness could help save many lives not only in Europe but across the globe.

Samsung’s ‘Everybody’s Doing It’ campaign will culminate with a magical, garden-themed pop-up celebratory party inside the atrium at the Westfield Shopping Centre in London on 15^th October: Samsung’s European Breast Cancer Awareness Day. On this date, the women who appear in Samsung’s viral campaign plus celebrity guests, will gather at the Westfield Centre and make their own pledges to further raise awareness of breast cancer to as many people as possible. From the 16^th until the 18^th of October, the Samsung Pink Ribbon pop-up will be transformed into a shopping haven for everyone to visit.

Celebrities who attended Samsung’s pink ribbon breast cancer event in 2008, which took place at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, included Jerry Hall, Kelly Rowland, Beverly Knight, Amanda Donohoe, Henry Holland and Jasmine Guinness. Even more are expected at the inaugural Samsung Pink Ribbon Celebratory Party at the Westfield Centre on 15^th October 2009.

In 2008, Samsung donated $3 million to Breast Cancer Charities across Europe and announced a multi-million dollar five year pledge to support breast cancer charities in Europe. Samsung’s campaign provides vital support for breast cancer awareness, prevention, campaigning and fundraising.