Breast Cancer Foundation NZ has launched a steamy new campaign directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi, is designed to make breast self-checking part of women’s everyday shower routine, bridging the gap between knowing to perform a self-breast check and doing it.
Waititi was approached by Special with a brief that needed a very specific kind of director, someone who could handle a sensitive health subject with humour, nuance and cultural relevance, without losing the message.
Waititi, who also joined the campaign in-kind, then assembled a crew most never get to work with: Ra Vincent, the Oscar-nominated production designer behind Jojo Rabbit, created the set. Curious Film produced it, and actor Xavier Garneau-Roughan leads the film.
Taika Waititi was recently the headline speaker at Cairns Crocodiles 2026. Read all about it here!
Special New Zealand shaped the recent survey commissioned by Breast Cancer Foundation NZ that informed the strategy, conceived the idea, and carried it all the way through creative, production and advertising as a philanthropic effort from the agency and all partners. Its PR arm then turbocharged its reach with a three-tier influencer programme, rallying Breast Cancer Foundation NZ’s ambassadors, earned creators and paid talent to flood the feed, backed by a strategic global earned media push that took the message well beyond New Zealand.
The goal is zero deaths from breast cancer, and finding it early is critical to achieving it because it gives women the best chance of successful treatment and survival. The idea emerged after the survey of 1,000 women found that almost all New Zealand women (94 per cent) agree regular breast checking is important, but 82 per cent say it is easy to forget.
Only 37 per cent had checked in the past month, and nearly seven in ten said nothing in their routine reminds them to do it.
The shower became the answer.
More than half of the women who had checked said that’s where they last did it, but it still wasn’t working as a regular prompt, so the Foundation made breast self-checking in the shower something women are unlikely to forget.
The result is a deliberately steamy, cinematic film: a very slow, very soapy shower, with a straightforward instruction to women watching that while they’re in the shower, they may as well have a feel for themselves.
Commenting on the campaign, Waititi said: “Breast cancer has affected many people in my life, including my mother and mother-in-law, so my involvement in this project was never in question. We set out to create something entertaining that also carries an important message – check your breasts.”
The 60” hero spot leads the campaign across TV, Cinema, BVOD, SVOD, radio, and social, with support from OOH and digital placements led by media buying agency PHD.
The idea also extends beyond traditional media through to contextual placements such as in gym showers where women are more likely to act in the moment. Glow Lab has added breast-check reminders to its entire 900ml body wash range, putting the prompt in bathrooms nationwide from launch day.
Vanessa Sorenson, CEO of Breast Cancer Foundation NZ added: “Working with Special has been incredible. From the very first conversation, they challenged us to think differently about a problem we’ve been working on for a long time. Bringing Taika on board was a real coup, and the whole Special team has been an extraordinary partner, bold in their thinking, meticulous in the craft, and deeply respectful of what this cause means to so many New Zealanders.”
Meanwhile, Bethany Omeri, Special’s head of strategy said: “Women already know breast checking is an important thing to do, but it’s easy for it to fall off their already very long to-do list. Women told us they couldn’t carve out more time for yet another thing, so we wanted to repurpose one of their existing precious moments of ‘me time’. The shower also conveniently provides the perfect conditions for this life-saving act.”
Lisa Fedyszyn, Special chief creative officer added: “There’s no one time of day that works for every woman. We have different jobs, families, routines and lives. But we all have a shower, just thankfully not at the same time. So instead of asking women to remember one more thing, we wanted to attach breast checking to something they already do. “Save your life. Rinse. Repeat”.
“We hope it makes checking breasts as routine as washing them, and ultimately helps change, and save, New Zealand women’s lives.”
