| EVENT REPORT 10.05.09 4:37 PM |
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Boobyball Adopts Kitschy Cruise Theme With Lido Deck Games, Models Dressed as Captains
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Not only did organizers of the eighth annual Boobyball manage to attract a sold-out crowd of more than 1,200 guests to Atlantis Friday, they also garnered more than 360,000 hits on YouTube with a viral video campaign. “The objective was to get people excited about the event and raise awareness about [breast cancer]. It’s taken on a life of it’s own,” said Amanda Blakley, who with Ashleigh Dempster co-founded social club the Society and created the first Boobyball in 2002.
The one-minute video stars MTV News host and 2009 event co-chair Aliya-Jasmine Sovani poolside in a white bikini. Close up shots of Sovani’s breasts are interchanged with a message that reads: “You like them. Now it’s time. To save the boobs.” The ad, created for about $100, attracted the attention of several American television networks, including ABC, CNN, and NBC. “It’s amazing the response it’s been getting. And it’s surprising how many American stations think it’s controversial,” Dempster said.
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RELATED TOPICS
Rethink Breast Cancer, RBC, Schick Quattro, Timex, Tretorn, Naked Juice, Stella Artois, Yellow Tail, Perrier, Palm Bay, Lancaster, Jose Cuervo Golden Margarita, Wiser's, Fashion magazine, MTV News |
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| EVENT REPORT 06.12.09 3:08 PM |
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Rethink Romp Plays Up Prohibition Theme With Photo Booth, Speakeasy Phrase Books
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With taglines like "Where Nautical Gets Naughty" (a phrase used to promote 2008's Hello Sailor-themed fund-raiser) and "Glamour Goes Underground" (a descriptor for this year's Prohibition-themed party), Rethink Breast Cancer has developed a reputation for throwing somewhat cheeky fund-raisers. Thursday's Rethink Romp on the sixth floor of the Burroughes Building on Queen Street West was no exception.
"We're trying to get young people's attention, so we like to be a little tongue in cheek just to stand out and get people to start thinking about being breast aware," said Lindsay Grange, Rethink's manager of special events, who credits the 25-person volunteer committee with developing colorful themes each year. "We do a lot of brainstorming. Someone mentioned [Prohibition] and we just really ran with it. It seems to fit in with the times right now, and people have really embraced it. It's definitely a different feel from our Hello Sailor event last year."
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RELATED TOPICS
Rethink Breast Cancer |
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| EVENT REPORT 05.07.09 3:35 PM |
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Harley-Davidson Holds All-Female Garage Party With Motorcycle Demos, Spa Treatments
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 | The all-pink Harley-Davidson party
Photo: Gary Beechey for BizBash |
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For the past four years, Harley-Davidson retailers across Canada have been hosting all-female events called Garage Parties in an effort to provide a comfortable atmosphere for women to become accustomed to the brand. On Wednesday, the company threw the largest iteration yet—an interactive cocktail reception for more than 300 women at the Liberty Grand. "We wanted to take the Garage Party concept and blow it out, over-the-top,'" Olivia Gottlieb, an outreach specialist with Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada, said of the event, dubbed Precious Metal. "We want women to feel empowered and that they can do anything they want to do."
"The idea is to break the barriers women have when it comes to motorcycling," Gottlieb said, noting that women are often intimidated to ask questions about a bike when men are around. So the only men in attendance Wednesday were male servers from Model Servers, who donned coveralls and handed out cotton candy martinis to guests, and two shirtless models from Champagne Showgirls, who were spray painted with the Harley-Davidson logo on stage.
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RELATED TOPICS
Harley-Davidson, Rethink Breast Cancer, Belvedere IX, Sony Style |
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| EVENT REPORT 05.06.09 4:43 PM |
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Rethink Breast Cancer Launches Annual T-Shirt Campaign With Burlesque Show, Custom Cupcakes
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 | Burlesque dancers at the media event
Photo: BizBash |
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To unveil its new partnership with Joe Fresh Style for this year’s Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Campaign, Rethink Breast Cancer hosted a cocktail party and burlesque show for 150 journalists and sponsors at Jezebel Tuesday. “We thought a burlesque club in a back alley off of Ossington might attract a few people,” Katie Gillespie, a senior manager with Rethink, said of the venue choice. “It has created some buzz itself.”
The organization began producing T-shirts with the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer logo in 2001 and approached Joe Fresh Style—which sells clothing at Loblaws stores throughout Canada—about designing and selling this year’s T-shirt in the hope of reaching more women across the country. “It’s our flagship fund-raising campaign at Rethink and it’s meant to encourage young women to target their breast health. The T-shirts act as a billboard," Gillespie said. (Retailers such as Holt Renfrew and Roots have participated in past campaigns.)
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RELATED TOPICS
Rethink Breast Cancer, Joe Fresh Style, Loblaw Companies Ltd. |
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| NEWS 03.20.09 9:00 AM |
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Fashion Week Tent Adopts an LG-Inspired Look For Fall Shows
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 | L'Oréal's beauty lounge
Photo: BizBash |
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For LG, life's good at Fashion Week this season. As the title sponsor of the 2009 fall/winter collections, the company's presence is prominent throughout the tents at Nathan Phillips Square. Signs bearing the LG logo hang on the walls of the mezzanine-level V.I.P. lounge; LG screens broadcast footage of the runway shows; and LG appliances are displayed at a booth designed as a wardrobe. In fact, the entire colour scheme—black, white, and grey with touches of red—appears to have taken a cue from LG.
"There's a lot of that elegance," LG marketing manager Linda Hechtl said. "That’s really what we’re all about as well. It’s really a marriage of fashion and technology in the overall look. It feels good. It feels sexy." Rob Dittmer of Three Events worked with LG, the other event sponsors, and Nicholas Pinney of Nicholas Pinney Designs, to coordinate the overall look of the displays and decor again this season. "It's a challenge to make something technical appear in a fashionable way," Dittmer said, adding that LG succeeds in doing this with its products.
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RELATED TOPICS
LG Fashion Week, Fashion Design Council of Canada, LG Electronics Canada, Barbie, DHL, Schick, Rethink Breast Cancer, Rowenta |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.09.09 3:23 PM |
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Rethink Breast Cancer Hosts Kid-Friendly Benefit With Dance Party, Fashion Show
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 | The silent auction display
Photo: BizBash |
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More than 400 guests—including 200 children under the age of seven—attended the Little Sweetheart Ball Sunday, a kid-friendly benefit in support of Rethink Breast Cancer. "There was a baby boom in the Rethink office and amongst our supporters," event manager Lindsay Grange said of the concept for the fund-raiser, now in its third year. "We're known for our cocktail parties, so we thought why not do something for our supporters who have kids?"
The event—held from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Capitol Event Theatre—raised funds for Support Saturdays, a program for new moms and dads dealing with breast cancer. Attendees watched a fashion show presented by Joe Fresh and had the chance to take part in numerous interactive displays, including a fajita station sponsored by the Lone Star Texas Grill. "Our event is not face painting and Barney, it's quite the opposite," Grange said.
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RELATED TOPICS
Rethink Breast Cancer, Telus, Schick Quattro, Joe Fresh, The Little Paper, Lone Star Texas Grill, Little Art Box, Balmshell, Becoming Maternity, Love Music, Sweetpea Organic Baby Food, The Chef Upstairs, Half Baked Ideas, Yellow Tail, Steam Whistle, Naked Juice |
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| EVENT REPORT 09.30.08 1:19 PM |
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Boobyball Adopts Espionage Theme With Bond Girls, Gadgets
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 | The spy-themed Boobyball
Photo: BizBash |
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For the playfully named benefit known as the Boobyball, organizers called on sponsors such as Telus and Schick Quattro to create a spy-themed interactive evening on Friday for 900 guests at the Liberty Market Building. "It’s not your typical cocktail party," said Lindsay Grange, manager of special events at Rethink Breast Cancer, the fund-raiser's charity. "You’re going to have such an experience. It’s amazing for our sponsors, too, because they are really able to engage their target audience and get the product in their hands in an interesting and different way. It’s not just them handing out a postcard or sticking a postcard in a gift bag, it's them actually interacting with their customers."
The interactive components of this year's event—titled "Boobyball 7: Undercover"—started as guests checked in at a bank of computers that generated their identities for the evening and issued passports. Attendees then had to participate in five activities throughout the night to earn stamps on their passport, which they presented to pick up their gift bags at the end of the night. Inside the party, guests had the chance to participate in target practice, inspired by Rethink's exclusive line of "Fashion Targets Breast Cancer" T-shirts. Attendees could also obtain an access code from one of Schick Quattro's eight undercover agents for a chance to open one of the men's briefcases to win the prize inside, and could try to unlock a vault in the Secret Agent Lounge sponsored by Telus.
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RELATED TOPICS
Rethink Breast Cancer, Calvin Klein Underwear, Schick Quattro, Timex, Telus, Naked Juice, Tanqueray, Cuervo, Stella Artois, Red Rain, Yellow Tail, Aquafina Plus, Toronto.com, Fashion Magazine, Women's Post |
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| NEWS 05.29.08 5:52 PM |
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Breast Cancer Film Festival Announced for Fall; Just for Laughs Returns
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The not-for-profit organization Rethink Breast Cancer has announced it is launching a film festival called Breast Fest, which will feature films from around the world that address breast cancer in interesting ways. The two-day event, which also includes a short-film competition, will take place at the Royal Ontario Museum Theatre on November 21 and 22.
In other festival news, the Montreal-based Just for Laughs is returning to Toronto for a second time on July 23. As reported in The National Post, the festival will run two days longer than last year and Jimmy Fallon, Jason Alexander, and Martin Short will host the event's gala. City councillor Kyle Rae told The Post, "[This is] the kind of summer event Toronto needs and craves." —Erin Letson
RELATED TOPICS
Rethink Breast Cancer, Just for Laughs, Jimmy Fallon, Jason Alexander, Martin Short |
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| EVENT REPORT 05.05.08 5:28 PM |
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Volunteers Throw Breast Cancer Benefit With No Budget
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 | The Red & White Ball
Photo: BizBash |
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Throwing an event for 500 guests with no budget to speak of might sound like an impossible task, but Marissa Morettin, chair of the Red & White Ball—an annual benefit in support of Rethink Breast Cancer—and a handful of friends did just that at the Courthouse on Friday. "This is truly a volunteer-driven event," Morettin said of the sixth-annual fund-raiser. "We're all friends and we pull this event off in our spare time. We want to encourage people our age to get into the spirit of philanthropy."
Morettin worked with a team of six people to organize the 2008 event. "Last year it was myself and someone else.... Every year I don't know why I do this, but it just amazes me—the number of people who step up to the plate is unbelievable," she said. "We don't spend a penny. Our costs are nothing. We get everything donated." The team used social media tools like Facebook to create buzz for the event, and Elliott Chun of Optimum Public Relations donated his PR skills to attract media.
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RELATED TOPICS
Rethink Breast Cancer, Schick Quattro, Speed Stick, Telus, Diesel, Finlandia, Moët & Chandon, Belvedere Vodka, Yellow Tail, New Balance |
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