Breast cancer ad banned in New Zealand for showing breasts

A gutsy Scottish breast cancer commercial featuring images of cancer-stricken breasts has been banned in New Zealand for being too racy.

The ad, which stars U.K. actress and comedian Elaine Smith, first aired on Scottish television last September. It caught the eyes of the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, and was lined up to be aired in New Zealand this week to kick off International Breast Cancer Awareness month.

It depicts a presumably bare-chested Smith holding images of bare breasts up to her own. The breasts belong to women who have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer to show viewers the oft-ignored symptoms, such as inverted nipples, breast dimples and lumps.

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Van Henderson, chief executive officer for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation (NZBCF), says her organization wants women to know exactly what the signs of breast cancer look like.

"Around half of the breast cancers in New Zealand are first detected through a symptom that the woman notices," she says in a media release. "Yet only 5 per cent of women are aware that puckering or dimpling of the skin can be a symptom, and only 2 per cent know an inverted nipple may mean breast cancer."

But the ad wasn't allowed to air in New Zealand because of the exposed nipples, which goes against the Commercial Approval Bureau's (CAB) standards.

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To appease the CAB, the NZBCF created a modified and censored version of the original ad, using strategically placed balloons, cupcakes and other objects in front of the women's breasts while a voice-over describes the varying physical symptoms of breast cancer, beyond the more common lumps.

The result is a far less effective message that fails to achieve the intent of the original ad, which is to actually show women what symptoms such as dimpling or inverted nipples look like. Since the New Zealand women's breasts are hidden, it is impossible to actually see the symptoms -- and a shame, too, since the U.K. ad has been linked to a 50 per cent increase in the number of women contacting their doctors about the disease.

Should censorship be put ahead of women's health? Tell us in the comments below.

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