Hologic is asking women to #BustTheMyth this Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The provider of breast health products has put a set of myths about cancer, such as the belief women without a family history have no need to worry, at the center of its latest annual campaign.
For 18 years, Hologic has rung the Nasdaq opening bell to kick off the awareness month. This year, the company, which sells mammogram systems and associated devices, has marked the month with a new awareness campaign. The goal is to dispel a set of myths that can discourage people from getting their breasts checked.
Hologic has created a film and quiz to bust the myths. The video shows a series of people voicing myths about breast cancer. Each time a myth is spread, a woman pops up to quickly set the record straight.
The ad starts at a spin class, where the man leading the session shouts, “if you keep up a healthy weight, exercise regularly and you eat right, you won’t have to worry about breast cancer.” At that point, the woman arrives and says “actually, that’s a myth.” As the woman explains, healthy behaviors can lower breast cancer risk, but “they can’t eliminate it.”
Hologic repeats that structure across other scenes, with the woman appearing in a bar, airport, lingerie shop and cosmetic surgery to dispel breast cancer myths about age, radiation, bras and pain. A QR code at the end of the ad links to Hologic’s #BustTheMyth website.
On the website, the same myths, plus others about breast density and implants, are dispelled in a “truth or myth” quiz. The website also makes claims, such as “more comfortable” and “a clearer image,” about Hologic’s technologies. Visitors can enter their ZIP code to see facilities near them that offer 3D Hologic mammograms, plus details of specific features the systems at each site possess.
Hologic could benefit financially if women get screened using its mammography systems. A decade ago, the company’s breast health business made most of its revenues from selling imaging gantries, creating sales peaks and troughs as large capital purchases ebbed and flowed. Hologic has flattened the peaks and troughs by adding services and consumables that drive recurring revenues.