Charities that represent two of the more common cancers that affect Canadian men and women have teamed up for the first time for #Kiss2Cure, a national awareness campaign timed to end on Valentine’s Day.
Using the tagline “Kiss. Share. Give,” the campaign by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Prostate Cancer Canada aims to harness the power of the kiss.
Canadians are encouraged to snap a selfie photo of a kiss with a loved one and share the photo and hashtag on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to be entered to win one of five “romantic flights” by Air Canada to New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco or, the grand prize, Paris. The airline is donating the prizes.
Participants are also encouraged to donate to the two organizations.
Donations will help fund research, health education and support programs that aim to reduce mortality and improve the quality of life for families affected by breast and prostate cancers.
“The whole idea is people coming together to do something so warm and loving, but so simple as a kiss to drive awareness of the diseases,” says Stephen Brown, president of Toronto’s Fuse Marketing Group, which created the campaign. “It just seemed a natural fit that the kiss should be the joiner from a symbolic and consumer engagement point of view.”
It’s the first in what is expected to be a long-term partnership by both organizations to fundraise and raise awareness for the diseases, said Lynne Hudson, chief executive at the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
The collaboration provides greater scale, creativity and innovation and joint work on research and awareness building for the diseases, said Rocco Rossi, president and CEO of Prostate Cancer Canada. “It’s something we hope other charities will mimic.”
The goal is to make the campaign an annual event and have it take place at what is normally a quiet time of the year for fundraising. It’s in English only for the inaugural year.
Several personalities will also provide kiss selfies to help promote the campaign. So far Toronto mayor John Tory and deputy mayor Norm Kelly have posted photos.
Fuse has also created a kissing booth at its office. For a $5 donation, employees may choose to kiss one of the dogs at the office or a fellow human, with proceeds going to the cause. Employee donations will be matched by Fuse.
“HR has not seemed to be too uncomfortable with the fact there are inter-office kisses going on,” Brown jokes.
The Siren Group is conducting PR for Fuse.
