Feeling Nuts Movement

The Feeling Nuts movement is a social media campaign created by Check One Two in London, to encourage young men to regularly check their testicles for early signs of testicular cancer.[1] The campaign went viral when the public and celebrities began sharing pictures and videos of crotch grabs using the hashtag #feelingnuts[2] and became an annual TV event on Channel 4.[3] The campaign is a first of its kind to only raise awareness, not money and to involve both social media and a tv event.[4]

Origins

Feeling Nuts was created by brothers Simon and Andrew Salter after being inspired by Wendy Gough, a mother who lost her son to testicular cancer in 1998 simply because he was too embarrassed to discuss it. Gough conducts awareness talks in schools ever since her sons needles death which left a lasting impression on the Salter brothers.[5] They realised that raising money wasn’t necessary to stop men dyeing of testicular cancer and therefore created a new currency through social awareness.[6] In an interview with The Times the brothers stated that "young guys don’t want to listen to charities lecturing them so we took a different approach" creating the social movement organisation Check One Two and devising it's first campaign 'Feeling Nuts'.[7]

In an interview with The Huffington Post Andrew explained: “Our mission is to empower people to spread awareness of this preventable cancer and change behavior to check themselves regularly. We firmly believe that this social movement, designed to save lives, will get the nation talking about this taboo subject and by using entertainment around the #feelingnuts campaign, ultimately, save lives.”[8]

On 10 April 2014, Check One Two launched the hashtag #FeelingNuts to promote the Testicular Cancer Awareness Month and encouraged men to regularly check themselves for testicular cancer.

On 12 June 2014, the Check One Two YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Are You #FeelingNuts”, urging viewers to share pictures of themselves grabbing their crotch with the hashtag #FeelingNuts to raise awareness about testicular cancer.[9]

The tipping point for Feeling Nuts arrived in August 2014 when the brothers dropped their trousers in Oxford Street in London and took a selfie grabbing their crotches, receiving 4,864 retweets and 13,507 favourites on Twitter.[10] Using #feelingnuts, they started a monthly call to action for men to check themselves regularly and then issued an online challenge to boyband 5 Seconds Of Summer and Richard Branson's son Sam Branson, who took it up.[5] Soon more celebrities started to challenge each other including Hugh Jackman, William Shatner, Ricky Gervais,[11] chef Jamie Oliver[12] and super model Cara Delevigne.[13]

According to The Independent the brothers uncanny ability to attract celebrity endorsement and their creation of the hashtag #Feelingnuts has ended a deadly silence of testicular cancer and created a global conversation.

In October 2014 the campaign went viral and social media monitoring company Brandwatch estimated that within 3 months, the campaign had generated at least 750 million global impressions in addition to thousands of media stories.[14]

The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night

The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night
The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night
Genre Comedy
Created by Check One Two
Directed by Chris Howe
Presented by Jack Whitehall
No. of episodes 1
Production company(s) Fulwell 73
Attention Seekers
Broadcast
Original channel Channel 4
Original airing 24 October 2014

On 17 September 2014 it was announced that the brothers had joined forces with Channel 4 to launch an annual 90-minute comedy TV event called The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night designed to raise awareness of testicular cancer.[15] The inaugural show premiered on 24 October 2014 and was hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall as well as featuring comedy sketches from One Direction, Jimmy Carr, Cara Delevigne and musical performances from James Corden and Rizzle Kicks.[16] The show also reunited Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey for a new Men Behaving Badly sketch for the first time in over 15 years. The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night inaugural event was a success, peaking with an audience of 900,000 and easily beating the channel’s slot average of 420,000.[17]

References

  1. "Celebrities Start #FeelingNuts for Testicular Cancer Awareness". Mashable. 1 October 2014.
  2. "Feeling Nuts Challenge for men goes viral". CNN. 3 October 2014.
  3. "Jack Whitehall to host Channel 4's Feeling Nuts". Digital Spy. 17 September 2014.
  4. "Testicular cancer awareness campaign launches comedy show". campaignlive.co.uk. 24 October 2014.
  5. 5.0 5.1 "The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night: How two brothers helped a bereaved mother's message about testicular cancer go global". The Independent. 23 October 2014.
  6. "Check One Two teams with Brandwatch to launch #feelingnuts campaign | Charity Digital News". Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  7. Pattenden, Mike. "The rise of the clicktivists, the new power elite".
  8. Welsh, Danniel (23 October 2014). "#FeelingNuts: Cara Delevingne And Ricky Gervais Lead Celebs Doing The 'Crotch Grab' For Check One Two To Raise Awareness Of Testicular Cancer (PICS)".
  9. "Are you #Feelingnuts?". 12 June 2014.
  10. "Check One Two Twitter".
  11. "Feeling Nuts: Hugh Jackman Helps Raise Awareness of Testicular Cancer". Vanity Fair. 5 October 2014.
  12. "What’s Jamie doing?l". The Sun. 3 October 2014.
  13. "They Check(ed) One Two! Suki Waterhouse leads the way as more stars show support for Feeling Nuts social media campaign with crotch grab snaps". Mail Online. 7 November 2014.
  14. "C4 joins a new movement dedicated to eradicating testicular cancer". Channel 4. 17 September 2014.
  15. "'Getting the all clear is the best feeling': Jack Whitehall, 26, reveals he had terrifying cancer scare and urges others to get tested". Daily Mail. 25 October 2014.
  16. "Feeling Nuts Comedy Night peaks with 900k". Broadcast. 27 October 2014.

External links