In the United States, endometrial cancer is the most common type of gynecologic cancer, but many people haven't heard of it–until they receive the diagnosis. It disproportionally affects Black women, who are twice as likely to die of endometrial cancer as other women. To change that statistic, we created a series of very personal short films to create awareness of the key sign of endometrial cancer, post-menopausal spotting. The videos all included a memorable call to action, “Tell your mommas, tell your sisters, tell your aunties...” tied to a clear key message, “if you see post-menopausal spotting, or a red dab, it can be a red flag.” From this message, our campaign hashtag, #RedDabRedFlag, was born.
This campaign started through a proposed partnership with the National Pan-Hellenic Council, known broadly as the “Divine Nine” (nine historically Black sororities and fraternities). The partnership was built on the shared interest of creating a conversation that removed the stigma around talking about Women’s gynecologic health and creating awareness about the signs of endometrial cancer among the Black community to help save the lives of Black women. The Divine Nine agreed to share unbranded, educational social content about endometrial cancer starting in September, which is Gynecologic Cancer month. We then identified three sets of advocates with unique perspectives on endometrial cancer: Dr. Kemi Doll, an esteemed Gynecologic Oncologist who founded the Endometrial Cancer Action Network for African Americans; Shawn Smith, a patient who had endometrial cancer; and Jamica and Juanita, two sisters who were caregivers to their mother as she fought endometrial cancer. And we hired Meja Shoba, South African-American film director based in Los Angeles and Johannesburg, South Africa, who produces narrative films. Meja quietly pulled moving strong narratives from our non-actor “talent.” At the same time, we began collaboration with Harbor Productions to establish an ownable design style we’d pull through all the campaign videos and assets. With finished videos formatted for social platforms, we worked with the Divine Nine to distribute these lifesaving messages to their community of 4 million members, relying solely on organic distribution or word-of-mouth on social media.
Relying solely on organic distribution across social platforms and no press outreach, this campaign reached more than 1 million followers, generated engagements with nearly 35,000 of them, starting a lifesaving conversation about endometrial cancer.
