Kundal's Pink Glove turns Korea's bathhouse scrub mitt into a breast self-exam guide

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Korean women, and Cheil Magazine reported Korea's incidence rose about 30% over five years. Yet the country's conservative culture treated women's bodies as a taboo topic, so understanding of breast self-examination stayed low, brands stayed silent on the subject, and the awareness ads that existed showed runways and pink ribbons instead of changing what women did.

Cheil Worldwide's answer was to stop talking about breasts and redesign an object every Korean household already owns: the ttae-soo-geon scrub glove used at the bathhouse. Working with the Korean Breast Cancer Society, Cheil printed step-by-step self-exam illustrations onto a pink version of the glove, and boxed it with an illustrated guide card and small Kundal body-care products as a 'Pink Glove kit', launched on October 19, 2023 — World Breast Cancer Day.

Kits were mailed first-come-first-served from Kundal's online store, and demand surprised everyone: the first batch sold out on opening day and an emergency second production run sold out in 19 hours. Cheil also distributed kits to eight large bathhouses across Korea from mid-November and trained sesin-sa — professional scrubbers who often find lumps while washing clients — to teach self-examination, with participants earning a Pink Glove certification from the society.

The response turned a one-off stunt into a product: Kundal kept the Pink Glove in its permanent range with the stated goal of one glove for every woman in Korea. The campaign went on to win a Silver at MAD STARS 2024, a Gold in Fashion & Beauty at the 2024 Clio Awards and Silver and Bronze at Clio Health, while Contagious reported roughly 28 million people reached.