A suggestive status update craze that has swept Facebook has been revealed as a new campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer.

Millions of women across the world have been updating their profiles with the phrase "I like it on the...." ending with locations such as "floor" or "kitchen table".

But it's now been revealed that the saucy-sounding updates are actually about where women leave their handbags or purses, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The craze is another unofficial campaign aimed at raising awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness month in October.

It was designed after the success of a previous Facebook breast cancer campaign in which women gave details of their bra colour.

"Remember the game last year about what colour bra you were wearing at the moment," the US organisers wrote. "It was a tremendous success and we had men wondering for days what was with the colours and it made it to the news.

"This year's game has to do with your handbag/purse, where we put our handbag the moment we get home, for example "I like it on the couch", "I like it on the kitchen counter", "I like it on the dresser"...

"Just put your answer as your status with nothing more than that and cut 'n' paste this message and forward to all your FB female friends to their in-box. The bra game made it to the news. Let's see how powerful we women really are!!!"

But while campaigners welcomed the viral marketing, some questioned whether it was too random to be effective.

MJ DeCoteau, executive director of Rethink Breast Cancer, said: "The bra I kind of got - it's connected to boobs - but I don't understand the purse."