Sovereign says that, for this year's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it donated R1 for every 1kg of Spar Select and Country Range chicken breast fillets that it sold.

The campaign raised R155 000, while successfully bringing women's health back into focus using humour and wit. The brand says that this was in collaboration with the company's consumers and partners Spar Eastern Cape, Spar KwaZulu-Natal, Spar Inland and Food Lover's Markets in Gauteng, 

"With COVID-19 being the main health concern and point of focus this year, women are not visiting their GPs or clinics and are not going for their regular health check-ups, which means their health is not their number one priority. But with the help of this campaign, we brought the focus back to women's health," says Sovereign's national sales manager Ewerd Ras.

"PinkDrive is incredibly grateful to Sovereign for partnering with us in creating critical awareness of breast cancer in October this year," says CEO and founder of PinkDrive NPC Noelene Kotschan, who pointed out that, while the COVID-19 lockdown bought some time to bolster health resources, it also set up South Africa for even greater mortality from non-COVID illnesses.

"About 105 000 people are diagnosed with cancer in South Africa every year," Kotschan adds. "It is estimated that, due to lockdown, a third of people were not reaching cancer screening services. If a third, or about 35 000 people, are not picked up through screening and referred for treatment, the cost of COVID-19 will be far greater than the number of people who die from it."

"With pioneering technology, PinkDrive provides mobile gender-related cancer screening and education to the medically uninsured and indigent communities of South Africa. As a non-governmental organisation, we receive no government funding and, therefore, are reliant on partnering with business to raise funds and share our message that early detection can prolong lives," concludes Kotschan.

By asking people if they were worried about the right things, Sovereign says that its campaign urged everyone to get their priorities straight and to make sure that checking their breasts was top of their list.

The initiative was created by Sovereign's marketing communications partner Boomtown. It was rolled out on digital platforms and in-store using wobblers in food aisles, on-pack stickers and t-shirt stickers for consumers to show their support for breast cancer awareness.

Additionally, an educational breast check tutorial, Facebook frame and competition featured on Sovereign's social media platforms.

Now in its third year, the campaign built on the success of the 'Don't be chicken, check them' campaign, which ran in 2018 and 2019. This was based on the insight that women are often too scared to check their breasts because they are worried about what they might find.

Individuals are encouraged to watch a tutorial on how to do a self-check here

For more information, visit www.boomtown.agency.com. You can also follow Boomtown on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.