The Crucial Catch

I sat at home on Sunday to watch football with my son, something I rarely if ever do.  But it just seemed like the right thing to do -- I wanted to spend some time with him.

So we are watching the Eagles game and I start to notice all this patches of pink.  On the players shoes, helmets, mouthguards.  Now because the branding is so strong, I immediately thought of breast cancer.  That's the sign of a really good brand -- one glimpse and you think of it.  Susan G. Komen and the Race for the Cure have certainly taken over pink.   Breast cancer = pink.

So I ask my 16 year old son, who goes on to tell me that it's breast cancer awareness month and all the players are wearing pink.  The NFL is a sponsor!  But the cool part, he tells me, is that they are all wearing their own versions of pink.  The coolest?  The swatches of pink on the cleats.  Not fully pink cleats, but swatches of pink.  All these big burly men are running around on the football field with pink on their shoes.

How unbelievably brilliant!  Sure, women watch football too, probably close to half of the audience is women.  One of my colleagues at the agency hosts a sports talk show on NYC radio every weekend.  The women are in the audience.  But so are their men.  Their husbands, their boyfriends, and their sons.

Reaching a legion of men who are just as affected as the women, in different ways, by breast cancer.  it affects the whole family.  So the NFL is bringing awareness to the disease.  The crucial catch?  Early detection.  Very impressive.

What's your experience?  Jim.

Jim Joseph
President of Lippe Taylor
Author of The Experience Effect
Professor at NYU