Movember is right around the corner, so to celebrate and shine a light on the month of fuzzy facial hair, Movember has teamed up with Rankin and a host of celebrity friends including Hollywood actor Will Poulter, Busted, Allan ‘Seapa’ Mustafa, Laura Whitmore, and Iain Stirling to name a few to kick-start this year’s campaign.
2023 marks twenty years since the charity, was founded in a pub in Melbourne, Australia by two friends. Since then, the charity has become the biggest global men’s health movement, leading the charge in encouraging men to adopt healthy behaviours, challenging health systems and confronting gender norms to reduce health inequalities and save more lives.
Celebrity ambassadors are nothing out of the ordinary for Movember, but this year they have rallied together in full force, for a shoot with portrait legend, Rankin, to celebrate twenty years of changing the face of men’s health. Stars involved within the shoot include:
Actor best known for People Just Do Nothing, Peacock and The Curse, Allan ‘Seapa’ Mustafa and The Taste Cadets’ Marcus Adams and Kieran Cavanagh
Hollywood actor, Will Poulter
Ex-Arsenal and England Midfielder, Jermaine Pennant
Broadcasters, Laura Whitmore, and Iain Stirling
Noughties boy band, Busted
TV Presenter, Matt Johnson
SAS’ ‘Who Dares Wins’, Jason Fox
The photographs represent the power of the moustache to bring friends, couples and even families together, to start a conversation about men’s health. This is to reflect how it is worth the men in our lives looking after their health to live longer, for the people around them who love them, as well as for themselves.
Legendary photographer, Rankin said: “Movember is all about having fun, whilst doing good, and I wanted to bring that to life with these pictures. Although men’s health is being talked about more, there is still a long way to go to solve the men’s health crisis which is why I’m so happy to be able to support Movember to reach more men through shining a light on the power of the moustache.”
Since 2003 Movember has championed men’s physical and mental health by tackling three of the biggest issues affecting men globally; testicular cancer, prostate cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. In that time, they have funded more than 1,320 men’s health projects around the world.
Hollywood’s Will Poulter commenting on the campaign said: “It’s an honour to help launch and be part of Movember’s 20th anniversary. The work that Movember has done over the past two decades has challenged harmful masculine stereotypes that prevent men from opening up but more needs to be done. Millions of people are struggling with their mental health and there needs to be widespread societal change to totally destigmatize the subject. We all have our mental health to consider and we should all feel free and comfortable to talk about it.”
Allan ‘Seapa’ Mustafa of the Taste Cadets said: “I’m proud to help spread the word and encourage us all to check in on each other by being a part of this campaign with both Movember and Rankin. We (Taste Cadets) check in with each other all the time, it’s just a normal thing to us and we want others to do it as well.”
Anne-Cecile Berthier, UK & EU Country Director for Movember said: “We’re delighted to team up with Rankin to deliver such iconic imagery with our incredible celebrity friends offering us their upper lip in support of men’s health. It’s the perfect way to kick off our activity for our 20th anniversary of Movember, which we hope will be the biggest yet – our work is so important and there is still so much to be done”.
Momentum for men’s health is building, but global focus remains limited. In fact, as of 2021, only 7 countries have developed a national men’s health policy. Healthcare systems are often not designed with a gender lens, or they are simply not available to men when they need them.
Movember believes that by focusing on the root causes of men’s ill health, it can improve men’s health more broadly. This means challenging behaviours, evolving norms of what it means to ‘be a man’, and improving the systems and settings that men interact with so that we can improve men’s health,create generational change and healthier societies.
As a global health movement that can truly engage men like no one else, Movember is uniquely positioned to lead the charge.
In the UK, 3 in 4 suicides are men, 1 in 8 men will get prostate cancer, and testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men.
Movember are making change, but they need your help. Grow a moustache, take on the Move challenge by running or walking 60km, host a virtual event, or create your challenge with Mo Your Own Way. Sign up or donate now at Movember.com.
