November comes with different events and special dates in Brazil: the end of the year is near, it’s Black Awareness month and the academic semester is yet to finish. More so, there’s another important issue discussed at this time of the year: Blue November. Or at least, it was supposed to be.
This campaign was created in Australia, in 2003, and spread across the world in order to increase awareness about prostate cancer. In Brazil, it affects more than 71 thousand men per year and it’s the most frequent type of cancer in the gender, according to the National Institute of Cancer (Inca). So, why is it treated so differently than female breast cancer, responsible for the Pink October campaign, known for its seriousness and increasing awareness?
NOT A SERIOUS RELATIONSHIP
Culturally, in the East, men tend to jeopardize their health more in comparison to women. Not only do they tend to avoid doctors, but they also die of heart disease more often and at a younger age, which can be a result of poorly treated high blood pressure or unfavorable cholesterol levels, according to the Harvard Health Blog. In summary, they flee from medical health care.
In order to try to change this reality, advertising uses some tricks, specially, humor. In 2023, humoristic Brazilian channel on YouTube “Porta dos Fundos” released a campaign with actor Antônio Fagundes talking about “putting a finger in your hole”, a reference to rectal examination, one of the methods through which prostate cancer can be detected. Besides that, other videos found in YouTube use the same resource to do so.
While the efforts can be praiseworthy, it is odd that the treatment of male health in advertising is so different from women’s. For example, actress Antonia Frering was invited to talk about breast cancer in an event offered by CDPI Mulher and Ela O Globo, which included a doctor to broaden and deepen the debate. Besides that, the influencers invited made contents talking about it, spreading information about the disease.
The same difference of treatment can be detected when it comes to media in general: starting on October 1st, diaries and TV channels are worried about which will be the feature produced. Throughout the month, associations’ buildings are coloured pink and news are filled with information about the disease.
In comparison, in November, the city’s not painted blue, nor the news are detailed; at the most, it is mentioned what is November Blue – a prostate cancer awareness campaign. But symptoms, data, amount of examinations, methods of prevention, psychological impact of the disease, self esteem or overcoming stories are not reported.
Seven years ago, Agência IBGE Notícias interviewed Dr. Franz Campos, Inca’s head of urology, about prostate cancer. He said: “It is key to narrowing the contacts with the media, in order to highlight this major problem of public health in our country”. In 2024, this continues to be true. So, have we, the media, not learned to talk about male health?
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The article above was edited by Fernanda Miki Tsukase.
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