Movember turns 21: How a viral mustache trend got old enough to drink

ADVERTISING

Happy Movember! No, that's not a typo. Well, that’s it – just an intention.

For those unfamiliar, this is the 21st anniversary of Movember, a mustache growth charity initiative that runs through the month of November. This bristly tradition is old enough to be drunk in the USA!

For anyone unfamiliar with the charity initiative, here is Euronews Culture's definitive guide to Movember.

What is Movember?

Let's start with the basics. Movember is a fundraiser that raises awareness of men's health by having people grow the best mustache possible throughout November.

If a movement whose core principle is men's health sounds a little icky, rest assured that Movember isn't a hipster wing of the sort of men's rights groups that populate the nastier sides of the internet. In fact, Movember is a good example of the opposite attitude to the rude commentators who appear every International Women's Day complaining about a lack of commitment to men's mental health. The Movember movement does this by using the fun annual tradition to promote important charities that support men's issues.

Led by the Movember Foundation, three causes are at the heart of this year's campaign: mental health and suicide prevention; prostate cancer; and testicular cancer.

While some people think that participating in Movember is all about growing the prettiest whiskers over the course of the month, that's only part of it. The main goal of the Movember Foundation is to raise money for charities related to these specific causes.

Since its founding in 2003, the Movember Foundation has raised funds for over 1,250 projects in 20 different countries. Instead of the misogynistic invective from internet commenters, Movember is a concerted effort to actually improve the situation in men's health. On average, men die 4.5 years earlier than women and are responsible for 69% of all suicides. Prostate cancer is the most common cause of cancer in men over 45, and testicular cancer is the most common cancer in younger men. At the heart of Movember is raising awareness of these issues and funding projects to address them.

How did Movember start?

Interestingly, there are two origin stories for Movember, both based in Australia. The first documented mention of “Movember” comes from a 1999 news report about a group of men in Adelaide who used the month of November to grow mustaches to raise money for charity. An early campaign was to raise money for the RSPCA animal welfare charity, with the slogan “Growing whiskers for whiskers”.

Unrelated to the Adelaide trend, Travis Garone and Luke Slattery met in a Melbourne pub in 2003 and created their own version of Movember. Inspired by a friend's mother's fundraiser for a breast cancer charity, they involved 30 friends donating AUS$10 to grow mustaches to help prostate cancer.

After Garone and Slattery's campaign was a success, they formalized the concept with the help of Adam Garone and Justin Coghlan, creating the foundation for the Movember Foundation. Their 2004 campaign attracted 450 people and raised AUS$54,000 (approximately €32,000) for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA), the largest single donation in the charity's history at the time.

The Movember Foundation was founded as an official charity in 2006. In the years since, the movement has gained international interest. It is now an official partner of the PCFA as well as its sister associations in the USA, Great Britain, Spain, Ireland and other countries.

Today, Movember's participation count stands at nearly 7,000,000 since its launch in 2003.

They have funded projects related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Family Man in 2021, an online program designed to help fathers be better parents.

A big part of Movember's success is the simplicity of the concept. Grow a mustache, raise awareness.

ADVERTISING

Throughout history, many charities have used similar, easily identifiable features to raise awareness, from the remembrance poppy to commemorate veterans to the ice bucket challenge that spread the Internet to raise awareness of ALS.

Oh, and for any internet commenters still obsessing over International Women's Day: There's also an International Men's Day. It's November 19th, right in the middle of Movember. So if you really want to raise awareness about men's health issues, get this “pain”!