The Delhi Metro has withdrawn a poster on breast cancer awareness that asked women “to check your oranges” but the questions remained – does the metaphor obscure the message, does it help women in a cloistered society get comfortable or more awkward by sexualizing a body part?
Delhi Metro’s action came after a day of a raging debate on social media and outside it over the poster by YouWeCan Foundation, a non-profit organization.
The campaign timed with breast cancer awareness month in October featured AI-generated women on a bus holding oranges with a caption urging women to ”check your oranges once a month” for early detection.
Though the poster was only on one train, commuters took screenshots and shared them widely, and the issue quickly became an intense discussion topic on various platforms and forums.
“Are the makers so starved of human decency that they would compare a vital body part to a fruit? How exactly are you teaching women to be comfortable talking about it, much less getting checked, if you don’t have the decency to respect the definition of the body part?” asked an outraged Sunaina Bhalla, an artist and breast cancer survivor.
Bhalla, whose last art exhibition featured her mammograms pre-and post-surgery, termed the campaign “ineffective, meaningless and offensive”.
“It’s a breast — both men and women have them and yes, both can get cancer. Be brave enough to use the word in the English language assigned to the body part in question.
This is a new low for the ad industry,” Bhalla told PTI from Singapore. The strong objection from people against the “inappropriate content” led to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) reacting quickly and removing the poster on Wednesday night.
“DMRC always strives to be sensitive to public sentiments and doesn’t encourage any sort of campaign/activity/display advertising which is not in good taste or defiance of prevalent guidelines of advertising in public places.
The Delhi Metro will endeavor to ensure that such incidents of inappropriate advertising don’t take place on its premises,” DMRC posted on X on Thursday.
The awareness campaign may have diffused the message but its critics were crystal clear in their observations.
The awareness campaign may have diffused the message but its critics were crystal clear in their observations.