2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Although a self -check exam might be considered a casual formality for women in many countries, this is not the case for Egyptian women. Due to their superstitious nature, Egyptian women refers to breast cancer as “the evil disease” that shouldn’t be an issue for discussion. And since “God forbid, she got the evil disease” is as far as women can talk about it, the awareness for breast cancer among Egyptian women continued to be insignificant. Consequently, the majority of Egyptian women can never be certain whether they have breast cancer or not. Hence, it remains a big question mark.

The Brief

One out of eight Egyptian women suffer from breast cancer, and as terrifying as this might sound, the awareness about breast cancer in Egypt is very low. In October, the breast cancer awareness month, Baheya hospital took in upon itself to change that and aim to increase the early breast cancer detection awareness among Egyptian women, which raises the survival rate up to 98%. The first step to do so is through influencing women to do a regular self-check exam, yet our target avoids any attempt to discuss this topic.

How the final design was conceived

Baring the culture challenge, we wanted to communicate our message in a simple way that will be understood by our mass target and show how easy it is to turn the scary question women always tend to avoid “sure I don’t have breast cancer” into a statement by doing a self-check exam. Accordingly, we used the “question mark” in our favor and designed the self-check brochure in the shape of that question mark, leaving only a full stop behind after taking one, which serves our idea effortlessly yet simply. Additionally, The mirror effect of inverting the question mark forms a contour of breasts, which matches the purpose of the self-check brochure.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

We placed our message on mirrors where women would literally face themselves and chose private locations to run our campaign in, so they would be receptive to our confrontational message such as hairdressers, fitting rooms, gyms, and even public toilets. The brochure’s design played a vital role in communicating our message as it confronted women with that question they don’t want to ask them selves “sure I don’t have breast cancer?” Yet, made Baheya’s self -check brochure the first step to turn this question into a statement. The fact that it was designed in the shape of a question mark, leaving only a full stop behind after taking one, let women literally turn the question into a statement, which grants their interaction and shows how easy it is to be sure. The mirror effect of inverting the question mark that forms a contour of breasts, made the brochure a physical manifestation for women to spot the symptoms and follow the steps of the self-check easily.