A lingerie purchase. A beep at the exit. A message you cannot ignore
A woman buys a bra in a busy H&M store in central Warsaw. She heads for the exit. The security gate beeps, like it does when something is wrong, and everyone turns their head.
Then the twist lands. The âproblemâ is not theft. It is a special tag added to the purchase, designed to trigger the gate and force a second look at what you are carrying, and what you might be missing.
How it works: a mammogram metaphor built into the storeâs own infrastructure
Most women know breast self-examination, and many see it as âgood enoughâ, even if they do it irregularly. The Polish Federation of Cancer Survivors wanted to disrupt that assumption with a simple line. âWhat a person can miss the machine will findâ. The aim was to get more women to sign up for regular mammogram scanning.
The mechanic explains itself. A shop assistant adds the special tag to a bra purchase. The gate beeps on the way out. The tag copy then connects the feeling of âsomething is wrongâ to the idea of early detection, and provides a fast path to book a mammogram appointment.
In mass retail and FMCG environments, point-of-sale public health activations work best when they use an existing habit and environment cue, then translate it into a single, unavoidable moment of attention.
Why it lands: it turns âI already checkâ into doubt, without lecturing
This is not a scare poster. It is a physical interruption at the exact moment a woman is already thinking about bras and bodies. The beep creates instant relevance and social visibility, then the message supplies the explanation and next step.
Mammogram scanning here refers to screening mammography, an imaging test designed to detect abnormalities that manual self-examination can miss.
The intent: change behaviour, not just awareness
The campaign targets a specific behavioural gap. Women believed self-checks were sufficient, so they delayed or skipped mammograms. This activation reframes the choice as a capability gap. humans miss things. machines catch them.
The initiative was supported by the Federation of Amazonki, the Ministry of Health and the Oncology Center in Warsaw. H&M hosted the action because it naturally reaches a wide age range, from teenagers to women in their fifties and sixties.
What to steal if you are designing a health nudge in retail
- Use a familiar signal. The security gate beep already means âpay attentionâ. You borrow that meaning instantly.
- Make the explanation self-contained. The tag is the media unit. No staff briefing needed to âsellâ it.
- Choose the moment with maximum relevance. Bra shopping is context. The message becomes harder to dismiss.
- Design the next step to be frictionless. The tag points to how to book, while motivation is highest.
In the campaign write-up at the time, the team reported 330 tags given away in 2 days, 1,650 unique visitors to the site, and a 10% lift in phone calls versus the pre-action period. It also described a longer tail effect when women later heard similar beeps in other stores.
A few fast answers before you act
What is âWhat a person can miss the machine will findâ?
It is a Polish breast cancer awareness activation that uses a special retail tag on bra purchases to trigger a security gate beep, then explains why mammogram screening can detect what self-exams may miss, and how to book an appointment.
Why use a store security gate as the medium?
The beep is an automatic attention cue with social visibility. It creates an instant âsomething is wrongâ moment, which the tag reinterprets as âsomething could be missedâ, making the health message relevant without needing a lecture.
What is the key behavioural shift it targets?
It challenges the belief that self-examination is sufficient and nudges women toward regular mammography by reframing detection as a machine advantage, not a personal diligence issue.
