The make-up free selfie campaign that was designed to raise awareness about breast cancer by getting people to tweet selfies with #NoMakeUpSelfie, faced a backlash yesterday as critics said people would be better off donating money.
A quick snapshot: Yomi Adegoke on The Independent said it seemed like 'narcissism masked as charity', Judy Johnson on Get The Gloss described it as 'slacktivism' while Ellie Slee blogging on HuffPost UK said: "I just wonder how we got to this point, where the only thing a woman can do to show solidarity with cancer victims is take off her makeup."
While on Twitter:
However, although people seemed to fundamentally not understand the difference between raising money and awareness - as they did when they criticised CoppaFeel!'s partnership with The Sun - the campaign has actually managed to raise a lot of money after going viral.
Kath Abrahams, director of engagement and income generation at Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “...we have seen a huge spike in the number of unique visitors to our website, smashing our record to date. We have received hundreds of donations from people in the past 24 hours. We would like to thank all those who have supported us, enabling our scientists to continue their life-saving research.
Ok so no make up selfie for #cancerawareness posted one last night but it was a but dark so here we go! 😩 pic.twitter.com/Xc2Cd9RdGk
— Kym Marsh (@msm4rsh) March 19, 2014
“Breast cancer is not yesterday’s problem; every ten minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. Anything that gets the public behind this important cause is to be celebrated. It isn’t too late to get involved, so go ahead and text PINK to 70300.”
Other charities, such as Cancer Research UK have also benefited. The Telegraph reported that in the last 24 hours, they have raised £1 million through 800,000 donations.
"The charity also saw a rise in people donating at their Cancer Research UK shops, and a huge peak in visits to its website," reported Radhika Sanghani.