The Mystery of Bra Colors Gone Viral
Yesterday, after a nine-to-five shift at work and long sweat session at the gym, I logged on to Facebook at home to see about half of my female friends with a peculiar status update. I was immediately confused, and then a little frustrated that I was apparently out of the loop with the latest viral trend. I check Twitter more throughout the day on my iPhone than I do Facebook, but I still hadn’t a clue as to how or why the trend started.
After a little snooping on Facebook and Googling “Facebook color status updates,” I was under the impression that the updates had to do with underwear. About five minute later I finally got the thread message that read:
“Some fun is going on…. just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before people wonder why all the girls have a color in their status… Haha .”
I never thought I'd have a photo of bras on my blog. But if it's for breast cancer awareness... 
So that answered one of my questions, but I was still confused about how and why it started. And, most importantly, how does this support breast cancer awareness? Yes, I get the whole viral thing, but this approach is very different– a bit mysterious.
The trend was not asking for donations, and the minds behind it (apparently a group of women of Detroit) have yet to come forward.
In many ways, I feel that the mystery of this trend is what makes it so interesting– interesting enough for me to write about and ponder many things, especially its effectiveness.
The trend’s purpose may not have been to generate donations, but like this abc News article says, it “has been a landmark in viral marketing” for its ability to generate buzz, and therefore interest.
It may not be Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October), but there’s no doubt that viral trends like this may help many more women remember to do self-breast exams, schedule a mammogram or even make a donation to Susan G. Komen For the Cure, like one of my former University of Oregon PR instructors Kelli Matthews did this morning in response to another Tweeter, @debbiews (posted on her Twitter page @kmatthews). Very cool 
In the article, Justin Hare, a 27-year-old editor for a Philadelphia medical publishing company, called the trend a “clever public relations campaign.” I couldn’t agree more.
For something that appears to have little major planning and expense behind it –and was a little confusing at first– I’d say that this PR campaign was quite successful.
What do you think of all this bra hype? Do you agree it’s been a landmark in viral marketing? What do you think the next mysterious Facebook update will be?
