Why we’re turning the shower into a breast-checking reminder, with a little help from Taika Waititi

When we started developing our new breast health campaign, there was one question we kept coming back to: if women already know checking their breasts is important, why aren’t more of us doing it regularly?

That question ultimately shaped Save Your Life. Rinse. Repeat., our new national campaign designed to make breast checking easier to remember by connecting it with something women already do: have a shower.

The idea might look simple and that’s deliberate. But behind it sits a lot of thinking, insight and one very important behaviour we’re trying to change.

And helping us bring that idea to life is someone we’re incredibly excited to have involved: Academy Award-winning New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi.

For Taika, this campaign is also personal. Breast cancer has affected both his mother and mother-in-law. As he says:

“We set out to create something entertaining that also carries an important message - check your breasts.”

Having someone of Taika’s calibre choose to give his time, energy and creative expertise to this campaign has been incredibly special.

We’ve also had extraordinary people choose to help us get this message in front of more women, and the support we receive from New Zealanders gives us the ability to create something that will save lives.

The gap between knowing and doing

Before developing the campaign, we commissioned a survey of 1,000 New Zealand women aged 20–44 to better understand their breast-checking habits.

The findings gave us a very clear challenge.

Almost all women surveyed, 94%, agreed that checking their breasts regularly is important. But 82% said it was easy to forget, and only 37% had checked their breasts within the previous month. Nearly seven in ten said there was nothing in their regular routine reminding them to check.

So the challenge wasn’t simply convincing women that breast checking matters. They already knew that. We needed to find a way to help turn that knowledge into action.

Our campaign is particularly focused on young women. We want more young women to know the normal look and feel of their breasts, recognise when something changes, and feel confident taking action if something doesn’t seem right.

“We didn’t want to give women another health task they had to remember. We wanted to connect breast checking to something already happening in their lives, so over time the reminder becomes automatic: shower, check your breasts." Jacquie Jardine, Marketing & Engagement Manager

Why the shower?

The shower gives us something incredibly valuable: an existing routine.

The survey found that the shower is already one of the most common places women choose to check their breasts. More than half of those surveyed who had checked said that was where they last did it.

Rather than asking women to remember another job on an already long to-do list, we saw an opportunity to connect breast checking with something they already do.

The ambition is simple: shower = check your breasts.

And importantly, we don’t want that reminder to disappear when an ad finishes.

Glow Lab is supporting the campaign by adding breast self-check reminders to its 900ml body wash range, putting the message directly into showers around the country.

Advertising can introduce an idea and capture attention, but repeated reminders in the places where the behaviour actually happens can help reinforce it over time.

Getting women to stop and pay attention

Of course, before we can remind someone to check their breasts, we first need to get their attention.

Breast health presents an interesting challenge. We need to talk openly about breasts, touching and looking, while breast imagery can also face restrictions across advertising and social media platforms. So we decided to approach it differently.

It has to be more than a memorable ad

The campaign will appear across television, cinema, streaming, YouTube, social media, radio and out-of-home advertising, as well as through mainstream media, creators and real-world reminders.

But one of the most important parts of the campaign is much simpler.

We’ve completely refreshed our How to Check Your Breasts page and created a new educational video that gives women clear, practical guidance on how to check.

Because getting someone’s attention is only useful if we then help them take the next step.

The guidance shows women how to check the whole breast area, from the collarbone to underneath the breast and up into the armpit, as well as looking in the mirror for visible changes.

All of our campaign activity ultimately points back to that behaviour.

And while October is our big launch moment, the real opportunity is in continuing to reinforce it over time. We don’t want breast checking to be something women think about only during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We want it to become part of everyday life.

Your support makes this possible

None of this happens without our supporters.

Your generosity allows us to invest not only in supporting people affected by breast cancer, but also in helping more women recognise changes and take action.

Our vision is zero deaths from breast cancer. Finding breast cancer earlier is critical to achieving that, because it gives women the best chance of successful treatment and survival.

Sometimes getting closer to that goal means tackling big systemic challenges. And sometimes it starts with something much simpler: creating a reminder woman won’t forget. In this case, perhaps all it takes is turning on the shower.

You can help us take the message further

Watch Save Your Life. Rinse. Repeat. and see the campaign for yourself:

Watch the campaign 

But you can also do something incredibly simple to help.

Encourage the women in your life to check their breasts. Send them our new How to Check Your Breasts page so they can see exactly what to do, what changes to look for and when to speak to their doctor.

Send them our How to Check Your Breasts page.

Sometimes a reminder from someone you care about is all it takes.