BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Betze Brown's bar of soap commemorates National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
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Chalk it up to dominoes, creative inspiration, or both.
Betze Brown of Anderson Township has created a pink bar of soap with a pink ribbon-impression on top, one more way to spread the word during October, National Breast Cancer Awareness month. A bonus: unfold the soap's cardboard box and you'll find instructions on how to do a breast self-exam, one of the most important ways to detect breast cancer.
Ms. Brown, advertising coordinator for McAlpin's in Cincinnati, came up with the idea in August 1997 while combining two projects: a poster McAlpin's asked her to design for breast cancer month and a personal project of creating hand-made holiday gifts for women in her dominoes club. The 1997 gift, domino-shaped soap on a rope, planted the seed of her sudsy idea.
"I carved out another bar of soap and melted a pink crayon on it, and that was my prototype," she says. Co-worker Michele Callow, formerly ina product development for Mercantile Stores, took the unscented bar from prototype to production. It was manufactured at Hewitt Soap Co. Inc. in Dayton, Ohio.
During October, a free bar will be given to every woman who purchases a Playtex, Bali, Vanity Fair, Maidenform, Smoothie, Wonderbra, Olga or Warner's bra at all former Mercantile stores, including McAlpin's, while supplies last.
Information: 232-2572.
![[soap]](/editions/1998/10/15/soap_400x361.jpg)