Rebranding Cancer? Meh.

When Steve Madden calls, you pick up. Period. So yeah, I said yes when Haymarket asked me to weigh in on whether cancer needs a “rebrand.”

Spoiler: it doesn’t.

But I appreciate that MM+M even tried to have the conversation.

The premise makes sense on paper. Cancer survival rates are up. Treatments are improving. Shouldn’t the “brand” evolve too? Maybe. But TBH, cancer isn’t Coca-Cola. You don’t build demand for something people are desperate to avoid. You don’t market your way out of existential terror. We’ll leave that to divisive politics.

I told them straight, “Rebranding only works in demand markets”. Cancer is a supply market that nobody wants to be a part of. No one attends “Cancer University” in advance of knowing they want it. (Go T-Cells!)

The only real “rebrand” is progress, be it cultural, medical, or systemic.

Fear doesn’t fade because of a logo or tagline. It fades when fewer people die and more people can afford to live.

So yeah, it’s a little meta being quoted in a story about rebranding cancer. Like being in your own roast and laughing at the punchlines. But if this piece pushes one more marketer, hospital, or pharma exec to remember that cancer is a lived experience, not a campaign brief, I’ll call that a win.

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SOURCE ➡️ https://www.mmm-online.com/news/does-cancer-need-a-rebrand/