Did you know that bowel cancer kills 80 Australians every week? Yet 90% of cases can be prevented through early detection. The latest campaign from Cancer Council WA aims to prevent deaths caused by bowel cancer by encouraging participation in the national bowel cancer screening program.
The national program requires people over 50 to self-test, by using a stick to collect a sample of their stool (known by many as a number 2), and then post it off for screening. Currently, just 41% of Western Australians and 38.9% nationally*, are participating in the free program. The new campaign from Cancer Council WA wakes the audience from apathy, asking them to literally ‘Stick It To No. 2’.
Using online video as the lead content piece, ‘Stick It To No. 2’ features ‘poo characters’ that resemble villains from infamously scary horror films. Whilst toilet humour may seem like a well–trodden path for bowel cancer campaigns, there have been few organisations that have actually committed to creative of this nature with fear of offending or turning off audiences.
Instead Gatecrasher tackled this fear head-on, using humour as the core component of the creative strategy. By doing so, it’s enabled cut-through, impact, and shareable content that will help maximise a limited budget. Most importantly, humour is used to combat key behavioural barriers by trivialising the distaste and embarrassment that prevents most people from using the screening kit. The key message for the audience is that yes, testing your poo can be gross; screening can be scary, but bowel cancer is scarier.
What’s more, ‘Stick It To No. 2’ harnesses the power of family and friends to be campaign messengers, by delivering tailored content to adult children and friends of those over 50, including an interactive online game. The message for these influencers is single-minded; to share the campaign with those over 50 (so if that’s you, be sure to share the video above with anyone you need to scare the cr@p out of!).
The campaign extends into television, radio, social media, and display advertising. A special thank you goes out to Brainestorm Studios, media partner Carat, and all the media outlets who are supporting the cause by making a smaller budget go further. Collectively we are saying #StickItToNo2!
Visit the campaign website here to learn more, test your poo sticking skills in the interactive game, or to get information on bowel cancer prevention and detection.
*Source: http://www.aihw.gov.au/cancer-data/cancer-screening/