Billy's Meme

Bras! 

Billy loved Bras. 

He was fascinated by them. He loved nothing more than to see a bra through a top, to catch sight of a strap on a shoulder, or to see a glimpse of material from a sloppy neckline. Bras were like ornamental treasure chests (if you excuse the pun), functional, yet beautiful and containing untold riches of all different shapes and sizes.  Billy would spend hours trying to guess the colours of bras of the women he saw in the street, red, white, black, patterned, he’d mutter to himself. Of course he never found out if he was right, but there was no harm in guessing. And it was this love of bras that drove Billy to dream up one of the biggest social media scams in history. 

It was the 9^th January 2010 that Billy posted his meme on Facebook; A picture of a pink ribbon with the words. ‘Breast Cancer Awareness Day– Update your status with the colour of your Bra.’   He selected special groups to post it in, things like Mum’s net, Cosmopolitan and others like it. Billy didn’t really expect anything to come of it but within minutes the picture was being shared and shared again. Then they started appearing, update after update, colour after colour.

white, red, black, beige, polkadot, purple.

Billy was in heaven.

It wasn’t long before the naysayers and the killjoys were out in force.

‘There’s no such thing as Breast Cancer awareness day.’

‘This is just a creepy con, don’t fall for it.’

But it seemed that women all over the world were willing to ignore the spoilsports and join in with the fun.

It had even managed to get itself on the six o’clock news. Billy’s practical joke had become national news!  They were interviewing someone from a cancer charity; a woman in her 30s.

‘We have no idea how this started and to the best of our knowledge this is not an official cancer charity.’ She looked stern, Billy was beginning to worry, maybe he shouldn’t have chosen such a serious issue for such a flippant game.

‘However, we are delighted with the response it has got. Today people are talking about breast cancer. Our site has had more traffic today than in a usual month. Awareness, education and vigilance are crucial weapons in the fight against this terrible disease, not to mention fund raising. So whoever did this, thank you – and by the way - navy blue.’

Billy almost fell off his chair.