Getting the message across

Today we hear that that rather alarming tv advert telling us to beware the persistent cough, lest it be the first sign of lung cancer has been incredibly successful, resulting in a doubling of early diagnosis in recent months. It doesn’t surprise me. If you have a simple, clear health message, then a tv advert does the trick. I knew it back in 1991, when I was campaigning against cot death. We had a simple message to give – sleep your baby on his back – and I knew we should do it through a TV ad. No, said the then health minister Virginia Bottomley, young mothers do not watch television. She wanted to disseminate the information through health channels, and health officials. But I knew the best way to do it was through the TV – so I kept up the pressure and in the end, she relented. The Back To Sleep ad was the most powerful thirty seconds I have even been involved with. And later, when the official report came out, we found that 87% of the mothers who got the life-saving message, got it from the TV ad. And it is still the single most successful health campaign in the UK – EVER!

So now we have yet another massive health crisis – the near epidemic of dementia and Alzheimers. What can be done? Well, according to many experts, who’ve today lobbied David Cameron ahead of the special G8 health summit this week, we should all be persuading the entire UK to take up a Mediterranean diet. Rather than what they call “dubious” drugs, they say this would be far more effective in the fight against dementia. I say it’s time for another TV ad, telling people that they should change their diet right now to help save themselves. And explaining exactly what it is to eat a Mediterranean diet – because it’s not about pasta and pizza as today’s newspaper pictures might have you believe.

Bring back the public service ads – they always worked.