“Cancer won’t be the last thing that f*cks me” - why I think girl vs cancer got this campaign all wrong

Thanks to Emma for tagging me in this.... and thank you Andy Plume for sharing it originally.

I don't actually even know where to begin with this billboard quite honestly. I saw it a couple of days ago, but life stuff happened and it quickly dropped off my radar again.

Since posting about this on LinkedIn I’ve discovered that the concept for this billboard was driven by a woman - something which has shocked me a little. But for me personally, this billboard is tone deaf at best, and downright offensive at worst. Maybe I’m more sensitive to it because of my experiences, maybe I’m old and a prude. But for me this massively misses the mark for a number of reasons:

1️⃣ Firstly, saying that cancer has "f*cked you" is completely negative, and in some cases, could even imply death. Women who are going through cancer need positivity, not a reminder of how hard the whole journey is, regardless of what stage you are at.

2️⃣ It implies that women going through cancer treatment don't have their sex drive affected by their circumstances. Strangely enough, for the majority of women, being told you've got cancer, having surgery, having chemo etc doesn't exactly count as foreplay. Low libido during and even after cancer treatment is extremely common and this is something that requires a lot more attention and understanding, especially by men. Because from the time I've spent talking to women who've had cancer, plenty of them don't get it, and expect "normal service" to resume pretty quickly and get frustrated when it doesn't.

3️⃣ Many cancer treatments have a massive effect on your long-term sex drive. I've been taking Tamoxifen - a drug that put me into chemical menopause and made me about as horny as a damp sponge.

4️⃣ Cancer treatments can change your body, permanently. And this can affect your confidence, your self-esteem and your libido. I've now got one t*t and believe me, it's taken some adjustment to feel remotely comfortable about that fact when I'm not wearing a prosthesis.

5️⃣ Correct me if I'm wrong - but "being f**cked" isn't really a term that a lot of females use. Because we are largely emotionally invested in sex, and "being f**cked" isn't normally how we look at it. It also implies a lack of care and attention over the female body - and this is something that women who've had cancer particularly need.

I understand the rationale behind this campaign from https://girlvscancer.co.uk/ but I just can’t get on board with it. I think there are much better ways of standing out and being memorable than potentially offending or even triggering many of the very women you are hoping to help. What do you think? Comments are open.