Movember: September is officially prostate cancer awareness month and the myth finally ends

Just keeping it a buck - health really is wealth. The more you can do for your body, of course, the better - so how about embracing prostate cancer awareness month especially with the end of a huge myth? Yup.

The ability to get checked for prostate cancer through a blood test? Game-changing. Peep the deets.

Movember has unveiled a creative campaign for 2026 Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, confronting the infamous reason men around the world avoid getting checked for prostate cancer: the belief that a check means a finger up the backside.

Developed in-house by Movember in partnership with CREATIVITY&COMMERCE, the campaign centers on an image guaranteed to grab attention — an anxious man bent over, braced for the worst — paired with the line "Don't let an old myth put you in this position." The ad then does what the myth prevents: it explains what a prostate cancer check actually involves, and who should be having the conversation with their doctor.

The insight is blunt. But it needs to be because many men still assume a prostate check means a Digital Rectal Exam (DRE), and quietly decide it can wait. In practice, a PSA blood test can be the first-line test. The gap between what men imagine and what actually happens — and the doctor's visit they skip as a result — is costing lives. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in American men after skin cancer, and about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed in his lifetime. For some men, the risk is higher still: roughly 1 in 6 Black men will be diagnosed, as will men with a family history of the disease.

Rather than fear mongering, the work simply shows the myth for what it is: outdated. The tone is matter-of-fact. The humour is subtle. And the strategic bet is that dismantling a dangerous assumption is more useful than escalating a well-known anxiety. 

"Men aren't skipping prostate cancer checks because they don't care about their health. They're skipping them because they're picturing something that, in most cases, isn't going to happen," said Tim Gnaneswaran, Movember’s U.S. Director. "Replace that picture with an accurate one and the myth stops standing between a man and a five-minute conversation with his doctor." 

In the U.S., men are advised to talk with their doctor about testing beginning at age 50; from 45 for men at higher risk, including Black men and men with a father or brother diagnosed with prostate cancer before 65; and from 40 for men with more than one close relative diagnosed at an early age. 

The work is aimed squarely at men aged 40 to 65 — the window in which the conversation is most useful and might be avoided. Concept testing found that exposure alone shifted attitudes and beliefs, which has shaped an unapologetically reach-first media strategy: the campaign was directed by Dave Klaiber and photographed by Filip Konikowski via +APE and is targeting 12 million men globally, running across OOH, radio, digital and social from September 1st 2026.