Breast Cancer: What does it MEME?

I know that many people have been affected in some form or fashion by breast cancer, and we as a society have really supported October as being breast cancer awareness month. The color pink goes hand in hand with breast cancer awareness, and can be seen in every major sport throughout the entire month. The nfl does a great job of supporting this cause and their players buy in and wear as much pink as possible. This was great for raising the awareness for males, as we tend to watch more football and seeing our favorite players wearing pink cleats and gloves for the cause was a great way to draw the attention of males who were previously not aware. With that said, I was not aware of the meme that went viral that was having women simply post their name on a pink background on Facebook. I am not a person who uses social media so naturally I missed this, but like many good ideas social media took this positive awareness meme and pushed it into a more sexual direction. Women started posting that same pink background and answered two simple question, the last place they sat their purse and how long it takes them to fix their hair. The first questions answer would follow the statement I like it, and the second answer would be followed by the word inches. So a woman may post I like it on the chair and the next line would read 15 inches. While these posts were not specifically sexual the women were told not to explain to men what the posts meant. This created a sexually fused post that was trying to gain awareness for breast cancer, which is not the proper way to promote awareness for a life threatening disease. This meme, while having good intentions, missed the mark in my opinion. The idea was genius but the failure to correctly associate the memes with the cause is why this idea never really reached its true potential. Using social media to gain awareness and reach millions of people is a great tool for organizations but the proper planning and attention to detail must be utilized to ensure the right message is coming across.