As a designer, you often notice visual patterns that begin to saunter across the pop culture and DIY-craft landscape. Before long, some of these motifs start to book it full speed into every corner of Etsy and then inevitably Brooklyn, somehow ending up at Urban Outfitters on a bed pillow. Sometimes it’s a certain style that starts populating (woodcuts, archival-like line drawings, whimsical food illustrations) and sometimes it’s animal, vegetable or mineral.
Recently, these trends have skewed towards the ‘natural’ realm – squids, owls, feathers and squirrels come to mind – but these days, I’ve also seen many a moustache (free-standing, unadorned and un-manned for that matter) make an appearance on everything from mugs and letterpress prints to cookie cutters. Now whether this outcropping of facial hair came in response to the month-long event Movember, or has its roots (ha, sorry) somewhere else, the flavor-saver frenzy has a growing popularity all of its own.
Movember began in Australia in 2003 when two brothers wanted to bring the moustache (or “Mo”) back into fashion. Although no money was raised that year, the first 30 participants sprouting hair got a lot of people talking. Passersby were intrigued; strategic hair growing tips were compared. The following year, four of the 30 original members came together to make their Mo-growing an annual, official charitable endeavor by helping an important cause – prostate cancer. The Mo’s had seen the breast cancer movement grow tremendously and looked into men’s health issues. Four-hundred-and-fifty participants raised $43,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGGJqTILD2k&w=560&h=315]Official Movember campaigns are now effective in 21 countries, sprouting up on U.S. faces since 2007. In 2011, the U.S. campaign saw more than 145,000 Americans growing and supporting the Mo, raising over $15 million for men’s health, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.
Already in 2012, over one million men and women have joined our moustache movement to change the face of men’s health. Over the years we have raised an incredible $299 million making Movember the largest funder of prostate cancer programs in the world.
— Adam Garone
While the Movember movement may make us snicker at the Mo’s around us, it’s fascinating to see such avid participation for a cause by changing a trait on one’s person (note lack of permanence here). By doning a stache, donors become part of a club, impacting more people than if they had simply written a check. Mo’s are invited to end-of-the-Mo-nth galas in several cities to celebrate their handlebars, horseshoes or pencils.
By effectively becoming walking, talking billboards for men’s health, Mo Bros along with the support of Mo Sistas, have spread positive health messages far and wide, with over 855,000 people participating globally in 2011.
Did the moustache motif exist before Movember, or did it take off because of it? Either way, this alternative method of raising awareness shows people are willing to participate in something fun and silly to support a serious cause they are passionate about.
