Mustaches, a staple of Edwardian England, the 1980s or hipsterdom, depending on your perspective, have taken on a new cultural association thanks to the annual Movember campaign for men's health.
New to Movember in 2013 is a mobile app, which brings the online Mo Space experience to your Android or iOS device. From your phone, you can recruit team members, share updates and track your daily 'stache growth with the Mo Tracker, which you can stitch together at the end of the month into a stop-motion movie.
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"The interesting and frustrating thing for us is that our mobile app needs to be as good as Facebook or Instagram, because that's what people are used to using," Movember CEO and cofounder Adam Garone told Mashable. "It's an interesting challenge for to create great apps on a charity budget."
Last year, Movember's 1.1 million participants raised $147 million for causes including the Prostate Cancer Foundation. But the campaign's impact extends beyond research dollars raised, due to the very noticable facial hair grooming of particpants.
"We call this Generation Mo, which is about inspiring a new generation of charity, thinking and postitive protest," Garone says.
Movember steers clear of fear-based marketing, avoiding slogans such as "one in six men will get prostate cancer during their lifetime."
Garone notes that each year, Movember does a complete creative overhall, a move few brands make. In addition to the new mobile app, Movember is pushing an initiative to stay active called Move and launched Mo Rated Barbers, a network of barber shops around the U.S. who are partners in the fight for men's health.
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