Public awareness of the need for regular breast screens is essential to the success of the screening programme

About the Campaign

Three new BreastScreen Aotearoa television commercials are now on air.

The commercials feature well-known personalities Ella Henry and Whetu Fala who go to different settings and talk to women and men about breast screening. These settings are a dairy farm, a building site and a mobile breast screening clinic.

The previous BSA campaign was over three years old and the TV commercials and other advertising materials needed refreshing. The refreshed creative approach will be used to build on and continue the success of the current campaign.

The commercials:

• encourage women to go for breast screening every two years and continue to be rescreened, and stress the importance of finding cancer early
• encourage men to take some responsibility for the health of the women in their lives
• demystify the process of having a mammogram (identified as a key barrier to women not being screened).

The commercials continue to use humour – an approach that has worked extremely well.

Campaign Audiences

The priority audience for the campaign is Māori and Pacific women who are in the target age range of the programme (45-69) and who have never been screened or who do not have screens regularly (every two years).

Other audiences are: family, friends and community members who support and influence these women. While the advertising is specifically focused on Māori and Pacific women, it is likely to make all women more aware of the need to have regular breast screens.