Advertisment
The Campaign featured in various media including press, outdoor, television and radio.
Advertisement A: The Campaign commenced with ‘teaser’ advertising in press, outdoor and television, where the advertisers were not identified and the wording “I WANT TO GET CANCER” featured.
The following day, the reveal advertising appeared and the identity of the Irish Cancer Society was revealed.
The ‘Reveal’ advertising included the following:
Advertisement B featured a troubled looking man. In the press and outdoor executions, the copy text read:
“I WANT TO GET CANCER
and wring its bloody neck”.
Advertisement C featured a woman working in a laboratory wearing her lab coat with the copy text:
“I WANT TO GET CANCER
before it gets you”.
Both Advertisement B and C featured the Irish Cancer Society name and logo and the following text:
“By 2020, 1 in 2 of us will be getting cancer in our lifetime. It’s a shocking statistic, but what’s even more shocking is if we do nothing to try and stop this. So please, volunteer or donate today and help us to Get Cancer. www.cancer.ie”
A version of Advertisement C did not include the final text, “By 2020, 1 in 2 of us …”
Advertisement D – Television ad No.1 – 30”
The advertisement featured a number of vignettes. The opening vignette (Vignette 1) featured a surfer sitting on a surf board in a bay. Voiceover 1 says “I want to get cancer”.
Vignette 2 featured a young woman leaning against a garden shed. Voiceover 2 says “I want to get cancer”. The camera pans to a photograph pinned to a shelf of a woman and her daughter.
Vignette 3 featured a woman and a man sitting in a car. She is upset and Voiceover 3 says “I just want to get it”.
Vignette 4 featured a man sitting at a kitchen table. He is visibly upset as he says “I want to get cancer and wring its bloody next”.
Vignette 5 featured a woman putting on a lab coat and approaching a bench where she picks up a microscope slide. She is then seen looking into a microscope. Voiceover 4 says “I want to get cancer before it gets you”.
Voiceover 5 says “By 2020 1 in 2 of us will be getting cancer in our lifetime, we want to stop this. So volunteer or donate to the Irish Cancer Society and help us get cancer.”
During this voiceover we see the young woman in the garden with an older woman, followed by a scene with a group of friends on a beach at night sitting around a fire and finally the couple from the car sitting on a beach. The Irish Cancer Society name and logo featured on screen with the words “We won’t give up until cancer does” and www.cancer.ie.
Advertisement E – Television ad No. 2 – 40”
The advertisement featured a number of vignettes. The opening vignette (Vignette 1) featured a woman sitting in a coffee shop writing in a journal. Voiceover 1 says “I want to get cancer”.
Vignette 2 featured a surfer sitting on a surf board in a bay. Voiceover 2 says “I want to get cancer so my friends never do”.
Vignette 3 featured a young woman leaning against a garden shed. Voiceover 3 says “I want to get cancer because my mum had it”. The camera pans to a photograph pinned to a shelf of a woman and her daughter.
Vignette 4 featured a woman and a man sitting in a car. She is upset and Voiceover 4 says “I just want to get it”.
Vignette 5 featured a man sitting at a kitchen table. He is visibly upset as he says “I want to get cancer and wring its bloody next”.
Vignette 6 featured the woman from the coffee shop putting on a lab coat and approaching a bench where she picks up a microscope slide. She is then seen looking into a microscope and writing in her journal. Voiceover 6 says “I want to get cancer before it gets you”.
Voiceover 5 says “By 2020 1 in 2 of us will be getting cancer in our lifetime, we want to stop this. So volunteer or donate to the Irish Cancer Society and help us get cancer.”
During this voiceover we see the young woman in the garden with an older woman, followed by a scene with a group of friends on a beach at night sitting around a fire and finally the couple from the car sitting on a beach. The Irish Cancer Society name and logo featured on screen with the words “We won’t give up until cancer does” and www.cancer.ie.
Advertisement F – Radio:
The radio advertisement which featured a male voiceover referred to the following:
“What I am about to say is shocking, by 2020 one in two of us will be getting cancer in our lifetime, scary isn’t it? but together we can try to stop this. So please help the Irish Cancer Society to GET cancer, volunteer or donate at cancer.ie, because either we get it or it gets us!”
Complaint
92 complaints were received about the advertising.
Complaint Issue 1: The common theme running through the complaints was that the wording used “I want to get cancer” was offensive, insensitive, disrespectful and upsetting to cancer survivors, current sufferers, bereaved families and those who may currently be undergoing tests or waiting on the results of same.
Some complainants said that the initial part of the Campaign (‘The Teaser’) had not identified who the advertiser was or the premise behind the advertisement, the only text it had contained was “I WANT TO GET CANCER”. While it had become apparent later on through further executions attached to the Campaign that the phrase had been a play on words, this fact did not alter the opinions expressed by the complainants.
Complaint Issue 2: Some complainants queried the source of the statistics referenced i.e. “By 2020, one in two of us will be getting cancer in our lifetime” and considered that the basis for the statistics should have been referenced.”
Response
The advertisers set out what they indicated to be their clear rationale for running the Campaign, as follows:
They said in Ireland every year an average of 8,000 people die from cancer. The National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCIR) figures for 2013 were 9,056 (1) .
Based on current projections (2) , they said in 2017 there will be approximately 40,000 new cancer diagnosis (37, 000 people in 2013, and rising at an average rate of 1,500 per year).
The advertisers said that generally speaking 4 in 10 cancers were caused by factors over which people had control including smoking, diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, sun exposure and vaccination (3). They said the reason their Society had been established in the first place was because people were suffering and dying from cancer out of ignorance.
The advertisers said their campaign had been created as a public awareness campaign, designed to save lives, similar to the way the Road Safety Authority had undertaken hard-hitting campaigns to reduce the number of road deaths and likewise the HSE who had devised campaigns to tackle subjects such as mental health.
They said the stark reality was that the number of people getting cancer in Ireland continued to increase and it would be irresponsible of them not to address the situation. One of the main objectives of their campaign had been to try and make people aware of the things they could do to reduce the risk of cancer, the importance of early diagnosis and the various supports available to those who needed them, including the free support of the Irish Cancer Society for those seeking it. They said they knew from their experience in dealing with cancer patients and their families that there was an appalling lack of awareness of the facts surrounding cancer. They also knew from their colleagues in the National Screening Service that take up of their services could be a lot better, even though such services were well advertised and administered.
The advertisers said that cancer is a complex disease, and highly emotive and by promoting such a hard hitting campaign they were trying to inform people more about the disease and encourage them to seek out facts. They wanted to start meaningful conversations about cancer and bring the topic into the public domain, just like the other hard hitting campaigns previously mentioned. They said they had never meant to cause offence with their advertising and their fundamental mission had been to reduce the burden of cancer on Irish society.
The advertisers said their campaign had been created over the course of two years and had not been undertaken lightly. They realised how provocative and hard hitting the Campaign was going to be and they were mindful of their responsibilities to consumers and society. As an organisation they said they were fully aware of the effects a cancer diagnosis can have on patients and their families. When creating the Campaign they carried out formal market research with staff who worked all the time with people affected by cancer, with supporters, survivors and patients. They said the Campaign had featured people who had been directly affected by cancer in their family or who had survived the disease.
The advertisers said that for over 50 years they had been doing all they could to help those affected by cancer, through their funding of cancer research. They had been raising awareness of what could be done to reduce the risk of getting cancer and offered practical support and help to those in need. Despite all of this, however, they said they have watched cancer rates rise steadily and by 2020 one in two people in Ireland will get cancer. They said the backdrop to their campaign was that in spite of all their awareness campaigns and widespread media coverage, people were not listening and that is why they considered some drastic action was needed.
In conclusion, the advertisers said that while their objective was long term, they wished to point out that since the Campaign was aired, among other positive outcomes, calls to their Freephone Cancer Nurse line had doubled with enquiries on how to be screened for cancer and general queries about cancer risk reduction. They said they had also had a major increase in traffic to their website and they were happy that their goal was being achieved in bringing the topic of cancer into conversations and the public domain.
Footnotes:
(1). http://www.ncri.ie/sites/ncri/files/factsheets/FACTSHEET_all%20cancers_0.pdf
(2). http://www.ncri.ie/publications/cancer-trends-and-projections/cancer-projections-ireland-2015-%E2%80%93-2040
(3). British Journal of Cancer (2011) 105, S77 – S81& 2011 Cancer Research UK All rights reserved 0007 – 0920/11 www.bjcancer.com
Conclusion
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaints and the advertisers’ response.
Complaint Issue 1: Complaints Upheld in Part
The Complaints Committee noted that the campaign started with ‘teaser’ advertisements followed by ‘reveal’ advertisements. They noted that while the advertisers had indicated that one of the main objectives of the Campaign had been to try and make people aware of the things they could do to reduce the risk of getting cancer, the importance of early diagnosis and the various supports available, the Campaign had not centred on these factors.
The Complaints Committee considered that there was a tolerance in society for charity advertising to be more provocative than commercial advertising, nevertheless, care was needed when addressing such an emotive issue as cancer, particularly when using provocative copy.
The Committee noted the level of complaint in this case and the distress that had been caused to complainants.
They considered that the ‘Teaser’ element of the campaign was in breach of Sections 3.3, 3.20 and 3.23 of the Code.
In relation to the ‘Reveal’ element of the campaign, they noted that some of the executions/vignettes were very clear in explaining the context of the message; these were Advertisement B, Advertisement C, Vignettes 4 and 5 from Advertisement D (4) and Vignettes 5 and 6 from Advertisement E (5). They did not consider that these elements of the campaign were in breach of the Code.
However, they considered that the other Vignettes in the television advertisements (Vignettes 1, 2 and 3 in Advertisement D and Vignettes 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Advertisement E ) had not been clear as to what the individuals meant by wanting to ‘get cancer’, and were therefore likely to cause distress to consumers. The Committee considered that these elements of the campaign were in breach of Sections 3.3, 3.20 and 3.23 of the Code.
Complaint Issue 2: Complaints Not Upheld
The Complaints Committee noted that the advertisers had provided substantiation for the “By 2020, 1 in 2 of us will be getting cancer in our lifetime” and did not consider that this claim in any of the advertising, including the radio advertisement (Advertisement F) was in breach of the Code.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The Committee reminded advertisers that great care that should be taken when developing advertising for such emotive and sensitive topics.
In relation to this Campaign, as the ‘teaser’ element of the campaign had concluded, no further action was required in relation to that element of the campaign. The elements of the campaign highlighted above found to be in breach of the Code should not be used again.
Footnotes:
(4). Advertisement D Vignette 1: Surfer sitting on a surf board
Advertisement D Vignette 2: Woman leaning against garden shed
Advertisement D Vignette 3: Woman and man in car
(5). Advertisement E Vignette 1: Woman sitting in coffee shop
Advertisement E Vignette 2: Surfer sitting on a surf board
Advertisement E Vignette 3: Woman leaning again garden shed
Advertisement E Vignette 4: woman and man in car
