CoppaFeel! wants young people to get intimate with their bodies to detect change

Encouraging young people to know their bodies so they can detect early signs of change, true to its name, the breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel! wants them to "Know yourself". 

Produced by long-term ad agency Fold7, the campaign was created in response to the insight that a quarter of young people aren't aware that breast cancer could affect them. 

Further, one in five young people admit they would delay going to the GP after finding symptoms, because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

To get more young people inspecting their bodies, the campaign pushes the idea that no one knows your body better than you. 

In typical CoppaFeel! style, the ad is a raw and real display of young people, aged 18 to 24, on a voyage of self-discovery with their bodies. 

The hard-hitting campaign is a series of vignettes, opening with a man checking himself out in the mirror. 

Other scenes show a young person inspecting the moles on her back, with some armpit sniffing, bottom squeezing, leg hair scratching and curve caressing thrown in. 

The film ends with the line: "Breast cancer can affect any body. Getting to know yours could save your life." 

Created by Jo Taylor and Kiran Strickland, Fold7 worked alongside the director, Jess Kohl from Prettybird.

Music was composed by David Goulding. 

“This is our fourth year working with CoppaFeel! – a partnership built on a shared belief in creating impact through inventiveness. This year, we set out to connect with our audience on a more basic, more fundamental level. All we asked is for them to know it can happen and know their own bodies – to be their own best advocates,” said Yelena Gaufman, strategy partner at Fold7. 

The campaign will run across TV, radio, print and social in September, through to October, which is breast cancer awareness month. 

It will be extended further in print and outdoor, with the human body presented as a landscape to be explored by overlaying geographical contour lines across intimate close-up photography.

CoppaFeel! has a long history calling for people to touch their breasts. 

Back in 2017, it appealed to young women who were more likely to go to the dentist, weigh themselves or get their eyes tested, than check their boobs. 

It followed that up with "Grab life by the boobs", which was the first ad to show a female nipple on daytime TV. 

And in 2020, it worked alongside Facebook on a light-hearted messenger tool to help encourage young people to check their boobs, or pecs, regularly.