There’s an old joke that posits that the word “Boob” came about because it serves as a visual representation of what a pair of breasts look like from three key viewing angles, above (B), the front (oo) and the side (b) respectively. Unsurprisingly, this is just a happy accident, rather than a serious origin story.
Moving swiftly on, in regards to why “boobs” seems to be the most popular synonym for breasts, it has been speculated that it may have something to do with the fact that, for whatever reason, most people don’t seem to find the word offensive, unlike many other synonyms for breasts that tend to draw a little more ire like “tities”, “chesticles”, “God’s milk jugs”, or “fun bags”. In fact, in 2013, Bonds, an Australian women’s clothing chain did a survey and found that 74% of Australian women typically used the word “boobs” to refer to their own breasts. As such, the company went ahead and decided to use the word in their “Bonds for Boobs” ad campaign, which both advertised their bra product line as well as a partnership they’d made with the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Nevertheless, as we can very much attest to, someone is wont to get upset about pretty much everything if you’ve got a wide enough audience. Unsurprisingly, a few people did complain to the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) over Bonds’ use of the word “boobs”. In response, the ASB reviewed the ad campaign wording and graphics and concluded that there was nothing in the advertisement that was inappropriate for a broad audience and Bonds was allowed to continue to run the ad. No doubt Bonds was grateful for the complainers drawing media attention to their ad campaign.
Of course, the bigger question in all of this is how I’m going to convincingly explain away my search history the last couple days while researching this article… “I swear, honey, I was researching boobs… FOR SCIENCE!”
Moving swiftly on, in regards to why “boobs” seems to be the most popular synonym for breasts, it has been speculated that it may have something to do with the fact that, for whatever reason, most people don’t seem to find the word offensive, unlike many other synonyms for breasts that tend to draw a little more ire like “tities”, “chesticles”, “God’s milk jugs”, or “fun bags”. In fact, in 2013, Bonds, an Australian women’s clothing chain did a survey and found that 74% of Australian women typically used the word “boobs” to refer to their own breasts. As such, the company went ahead and decided to use the word in their “Bonds for Boobs” ad campaign, which both advertised their bra product line as well as a partnership they’d made with the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Nevertheless, as we can very much attest to, someone is wont to get upset about pretty much everything if you’ve got a wide enough audience. Unsurprisingly, a few people did complain to the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) over Bonds’ use of the word “boobs”. In response, the ASB reviewed the ad campaign wording and graphics and concluded that there was nothing in the advertisement that was inappropriate for a broad audience and Bonds was allowed to continue to run the ad. No doubt Bonds was grateful for the complainers drawing media attention to their ad campaign.
Of course, the bigger question in all of this is how I’m going to convincingly explain away my search history the last couple days while researching this article… “I swear, honey, I was researching boobs… FOR SCIENCE!”
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