'Checkup Briefs' Open in the Back to Make Prostate Exams Easier

Humor can be a good way in when you’re talking about uncomfortable health issues. And speaking of good ways in, a fun stunt from agency Rethink and Canada’s Prostate Cancer Foundation BC features amusing underwear product design to raise awareness of the country’s most diagnosed cancer among men.

Say hello to Checkup Briefs, a pair of tighty-whities designed with an opening at the back, so doctors can more easily give you a prostate exam.

This video helpfully explains more:

The campaign is based around a few key pieces of data. First, prostate cancer has a survival rate of nearly 100 percent if detected early; yet nearly 5,000 Canadian men die from it each year, many because they’re too embarrassed to book a prostate exam.

“Prostate cancer is still the No. 1 most diagnosed cancer among Canadian men. Our goal with ‘Checkup Briefs’ is to amplify awareness around the importance of having prostate exams through a more humorous approach,” says the foundation’s executive director, Leah Lariviere. “We hope that this more tongue-in-cheek direction can allow men to feel more comfortable about learning and talking about prostate exams.”

They’re actually making a limited number of these Checkup Briefs, but you need to book a prostate exam appointment—and let @prostatecancerbc know by sending them a DM—for a chance to get a pair.

This campaign follows another humor-driven cancer awareness effort from a few weeks ago, when Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney brought cameras to their colonoscopies—in a video for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.