The Super Bowl is always packed with attention-grabbing ads, but Novartis’s cleavage-packed commercial created particularly major buzz after it aired on February 9.
Called “Your Attention, Please,” the grabby ad runs through a series of breast-focused scenes, including close-ups of cheerleaders in low-cut uniforms, a breastfeeding mom, women trying on bras, and more. After that montage, it ends on a different note: with comedian Wanda Sykes, who had a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, urging women to get screened for the disease.
“Let’s start paying attention to breasts when it matters the most,” Sykes says in the ad. “Early detection for breast cancer is a game-changer, and why I’m able to be here today.” From there, she encouraged “more women to get screened than ever before,” and directed viewers to visit the website YourAttentionPlease.com to learn more—as well as find locations to get screened.
The ad definitely got people talking—and, in the case of cancer screening, that’s a good thing. In fact, when SELF reached out to doctors who treat this type of cancer, they applauded the ad’s underlying messaging. Here’s what they want you to know.
The ad uses America’s obsession with boobs to hammer home the importance of preventive care.
The Super Bowl ad is especially important because so many people tune in to watch the game—and thus, the messaging in between the plays, G. Thomas Ruiz, MD, lead ob/gyn at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, tells SELF. “It’s the biggest event of the year,” he says. “You put a commercial out there and hope it grabs a woman’s attention to say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve never had a mammogram’ or ‘I’m overdue for a mammogram.’”
And, as research shows, lots of folks are missing their screening. Data from the CDC show that just 66% of women aged 40 and older are up to date on their mammograms. That means one in three women aren’t being screened as recommended for a potentially life-threatening condition that affects a huge number of Americans each year—specifically, breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women in the US (skin cancer is the first), according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). To distill it even further: There’s a one in eight chance that the average American woman will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.
That makes this reminder to get screened crucial, Janie Grumley, MD, breast surgical oncologist and director of the Margie Petersen Breast Center at Providence Saint John’s Center in Santa Monica, California, tells SELF. “It encourages people to stop and think, ‘breast cancer could happen to me,’” she says. “It’s always important to have a reminder.”
The ad was also smart in that it grabbed the attention of men and women, which could foster dialogue between couples, encouraging men to ask their partners when their last breast cancer screening was, Dr. Ruiz says.
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