India is a largely patriarchal society. Years of suppression have ensured that women suffer different manifestations of patriarchy, accepting them as habits. Traditionally women have been taught,by generations, our myths, legends, religious texts and cinema that the role of the woman is sacrificial and that of a provider for all else in the family. She is taught to keep herself last in priorities whether to serve herself food in the end at the cost of nutrients, financial securities or her health.

We therefore asked the men to do something for women they love, and help women extract 10 minutes of time for self examination. With men doing a household chore and sparing that time for women.

HIMInitiative or Husbands Initiated Movement was our big idea.

• We urged husbands to take up one household chore and give wives 10 minutes to practise self-examination to exhibit care towards their partner. This was facilitated through www.himiniative.com, a website where husbands could select one chore and send the breast self-examination kit to their wives in the form of a personalized e-mailer. A film titled “The Silent Couple” essaying the story of a deaf and mute couple, emphasizing ‘action is more important than words’ was developed. Banners, e-mailers, social media engagement on Twitter and Facebook drove traffic to the website. This was supported by print and outdoor advertising along with FAQ activities with leading oncologists and celebrities on NDTV (most popular news channel watched by men). Full day was dedicated on NDTV to observe ‘Fight against Breast Cancer’, with live call-ins and celebrity based vignettes of real life survivor. Street plays, corporate and mall activations to demonstrate importance of self-examination.

20,250 self-examination tests emailed by husband through the website

2,200 husbands downloaded the self-examination test

800 husbands shared selfies of doing household chores to encourage wives to spend time in self-examination

9.3 million organic reach through social media

670,000 views on YouTube

168 million impressions.

151,896 visitors on the HIMinitiative website

The Ministry of Health solicited Philips to extend the campaign to rural areas as well to a few more states where mortality rates of breast cancer is higher

600 users participated in the day-long activity to generate 2500 conversations, which helped us reach 1.3 Million users on Twitter using #AgainstBreastCancer and became the No.1 trend in India on twitter on October 30

3500 conversations were recorded for #Himinitiative. It helped us reach 1 Million users through 23 million tweet impressions

4 Million reached through Facebook and Twitter

Bollywood celebrities joined the initiative

The news channels took it up