“I love boobies.”

That’s one slogan printed on Keep a Breast Foundation’s silicone bracelets. Others include “Nice Jugs”, “I Heart Motorboating” and “Funbags.”

According to the foundation, the bracelets are marketed towards a younger demographic who might not respond to the pink ribbon campaigns.

In a CTV News interview, Michelle Murray, the foundations Canadian executive director says “We feel the bracelets are a wonderful talking tool for young people…” She went on to say that most young people wear them for the right reason.

The Kelowna school district disagrees. It feels the bracelets are inappropriate and are more of a novelty item than anything else.

B.C. middle schools are the latest of many throughout Canada to ban the ‘I Love Boobies’ campaign, which isn’t just bracelets. It’s also T-shirts, sweaters and hats.

Having been working at a store that sells the brand I can vouch for Murray. The young people do like them and they are a talking tool- a way to talk about boobies! Our first shipment had 400 bracelets, around three weeks later they were gone.

There were children as young as eight buying or convincing their parents to buy the $5 bracelets. Were they for the right reasons, I can’t exactly say, but something about the bracelets sure was funny to them.

It certainly couldn’t be the cancer part, right?

In the same CTV interview a group of young boys, when asked why they wear the bracelets, one laughed and replied ‘I don’t know, it’s for breast cancer’ while another simply shouted the word ‘boobies.’

Foundations for cancer are great but is this just an innocent marketing strategy or a way to take advantage of a cause?