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Breast Cancer Awareness Month goes Global
10 days until Breast Cancer Awareness Month: a tribute to brave fighters
Every year, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is celebrated, turning the entire month of October pink. The occasion has brought about massive attention and funding to breast cancer research, resulting in significant progress. More women than ever before are now going for breast cancer screenings, saving countless lives. Let’s find out how this event...
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Resources used for Breast Cancer Awareness Month
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Woman
Inspire the fight against breast cancer in high resolution with this highly encouraging and influential collection of inspirational women, giving your next campaign the voice it needs to motivate the masses against such a reckless illness.
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Mammogram
This life-saving machine is a vital step in diagnosing breast cancer, saving countless lives around the globe. Showcase the importance of this technology by applying mammogram images to your Breast Cancer Awareness Month campaign projects or anything medical for that matter.
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Breast Cancer
Help the brave pink warriors in their fight against breast cancer. This assortment of images contains pictures of pink ribbons, cancer survivors, or groups of women, among others. Create powerful presentations and raise awareness using these beautiful photographs.
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Science
Science is key in the fight against diseases like cancer. Choose any of these images related to science and use them for providing details of your research or to let other people know about your findings. They are also great for many other types of projects.
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Breast cancer logos
Set about applying an easily recognizable Breast Cancer Logo to your creative design projects. Each design is easily editable and will do well to suit your Breast Cancer campaigns with great success, creating striking designs that deliver the right message.
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Breast Cancer symbols
Instantly improve the visual aesthetics and communicative language of your Breast Cancer Awareness campaign using these editable and highly recognizable breast cancer symbols. Convey your message efficiently and with style.
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Breast Cancer backgrounds
Help spread awareness this Breast Cancer Month by utilizing a Breast Cancer background. These high quality images are valuable, encouraging and educating women everywhere to make that vital check and provide support for others.
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Breast Cancer clip art
Take a more lighthearted approach to tackling breast cancer using these delightful breast cancer clip art designs, using a mix of pastel colors and vector illustrations to help convey and spread awareness of this life-changing disease.
Symbols
Symbols that shaped Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Pink ribbon
Female breast
Female symbol
Boxing gloves
The pink ribbon that has wrapped itself around the world
The Breast Cancer Awareness Month ribbon has become a globally recognized symbol that unites people around the world to stand against a potentially fatal disease, helping drive awareness in an awe-inspiring way. In its early days, the symbol carried a more functional message: wearing the ribbon on your wrist likely meant you had aided the cause, participated in a charity run, or maybe even had the disease. Nowadays, the pink ribbon has grown into a globally recognized icon with one purpose: to spread awareness of Breast Cancer to every corner of the globe in an attempt to eradicate it in our lifetime. This powerful symbol will be the main focus of your Breast Cancer Awareness creative projects. Let’s spread the pink ribbon.
The female breast, society moving forward
This symbol has played a decisive role in helping bring awareness to breast cancer, helping educate women on how to perform self-examinations to check for lumps in the breast, and demonstrating just how simple and easy the process can be. This simple action is presented in a positive tone, aiming to resonate with viewers on a personal level and leading audiences to think about it subconsciously. Before Betty Ford broke the silence on the matter of Breast Cancer, such openness wasn’t heard of. However, today, we see visual communication challenge the sexualization of the female form using such icons and imagery to bring attention to the elephant in the room. Perhaps this symbol will help create a functional campaign, social media post, or a feature on a website to help spread awareness by educating women and men about spotting cancer early on.
The female symbol of Venus
The glyph of Venus, or the female symbol, originated from the Greeks, who named the symbol after Venus, the planet and goddess of love. The symbol itself is rumored to have represented Aphrodite’s hand mirror and has simplified over the centuries to what we have now, a hollow circle that sits on a cross. The symbol has become a powerful icon used to empower women. Therefore, using this symbol for Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an obvious fit, seeking to unite women everywhere. Such a symbol will perform well in Breast Cancer Awareness campaigns, perhaps backed by strong female colors like pink!
Stand up as a strong woman, wearing boxing gloves!
Take the fight against the disease! Boxing gloves are a glorious way to show how fierce and strong women can be. Don’t drop your guard. Boxing is a martial art that requires you to stand on your two feet and not turn your back on your enemy. It is the tone of voice we want to use when fighting Breast Cancer. The symbol provokes a ferocious stance to stand up, not just to the disease but to the decades of speculation and taboo around the subject. Perhaps some strong pink boxing gloves would help deliver the message you want to convey in a poster, banner, or social media post, connecting a knockout blow that will attract attention.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month Color Palette
Lavender Floral
As the name suggests, this pigment originates from the world-renowned Lavender. A wildflower that covers forest floors in the late spring, often with poetic results. This color perfectly captures the essence of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, symbolizing purity, serenity, and grace—all qualities that draw the right kind of attention to this important cause. Such a deep color provides a strong presence in your creative designs, pulling in attention while doing so gently and with style. A practical color it may be, but don’t stop yourself from letting your hair down and seeing where this wonderful hue might take you.
How did Breast Cancer Awareness Month become global?
Breast Cancer Awareness Month has become a huge event that takes place annually, recognized in hundreds of countries around the world. But, not too long ago, there were barely any efforts to raise awareness about the disease—it was essentially a taboo subject! It’s crazy to think that a disease claiming over 2 million lives each year was once stigmatized, but it took a courageous lady, some corporate muscle, and major funding from cosmetic giants and pharmaceutical companies to bring it into the spotlight. The story of Breast Cancer Awareness Month may sound more like a business strategy than a simple charity effort. Let’s take a look at this fascinating timeline and learn just how this meaningful movement unfolded.
1974
Betty Ford
Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer
In 1974, after her husband Gerald R. Ford became President of the United States, Betty Ford’s life as First Lady was subject to intense scrutiny. Later that year, during a routine checkup, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, breast cancer was rarely discussed publicly, and awareness was limited. However, Betty chose to break the silence by making her diagnosis and treatment public. Just shortly after her mastectomy, the White House held a press conference announcing that the surgery was a success, crediting early detection. Her openness led to an outpouring of support and inspired a surge of women to seek breast cancer screenings. Betty’s strength and advocacy made her a voice for women everywhere, helping to destigmatize breast cancer. She reflected on this pivotal moment in her 1978 memoir, “Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer.”
1985
American Cancer Society
The first Breast Cancer Awareness campaign
The American Cancer Society (ACS), founded in 1913, was established by a group of volunteers with the mission to eradicate cancer and improve survival rates. In October 1985, it partnered up with the pharmaceutical division of Imperial Chemical Industries (now known as AstraZeneca) to create the first campaign dedicated to raising awareness about breast cancer. The week-long event featured former First Lady Betty Ford, who shared her own experience fighting breast cancer. The campaign focused on educating women and men about breast cancer, how to spot the signs, and promoted mammogram screenings, a machine built to find cancer cells in breast tissue. In addition to spreading awareness, Breast Cancer Awareness Month also called for donations to support breast cancer research, providing funds to develop treatments and improve patients' quality of life.
1993
The dawn of the pink ribbon
The big corporations muscling their way into charity on the world stage
The inspiration for the globally recognized pink ribbon evolved from the massive ribbon boom of 1992, which the New York Times called "The Year of the Ribbon." The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation began distributing pink ribbons to every participant in the New York City Race for the Cure. However, the ribbon was a finer detail against the race itself and didn’t catch on. Alexandra Penney, editor-in-chief of Self magazine at the time, and guest editor Evelyn Lauder saw the potential of the ribbon and sought to distribute the symbol through cosmetic stores in New York City and across the country. However, it turned out a woman had already beaten them to it. Charlotte Haley, a woman who had suffered tremendous loss from the disease, had already been distributing batches of handmade peach-colored ribbons from her kitchen. Self Magazine got in touch with Charlotte, proposing to elevate her efforts, but after she refused, Self Magazine and its lawyers simply took the ribbon concept and changed the color to pink! The pink ribbon is now the primary emblem of support for breast cancer awareness.
2000
Global Illumination
October is the month the world is dresses in Pink!
With the backing of corporate giants, the pink ribbon had hit the international stage. In 2000, the fragrance and cosmetic company Estée Lauder Inc. launched Global Illumination, a powerful international campaign that involved illuminating some of the world's most recognized landmarks in pink, such as the Tower of London, Niagara Falls, and the Sydney Opera House. The event even set a new Guinness World Record for Most Landmarks Illuminated for a Cause in 24 hours! This kind of attention ultimately provided Breast Cancer Awareness Month a global platform. With such success, the world has benefitted from increased awareness of the disease, ultimately saving countless lives and giving women all around the world a voice to talk about an issue that was once considered taboo.