Pancreatic Cancer Action: why we ran a controversial ad campaign
Any type of cancer is a horrible disease but, thankfully, funding and campaigning has seen the survival rates for many types of the disease improve tremendously in the last few decades.
However, pancreatic cancer, the UK's fifth biggest killer among cancers, has been little known, poorly understood and chronically underfunded, which goes some way to explaining why survival rates have not improved in 40 years.
While no early detection method exists for the cancer, the key to changing survival figures is early diagnosis. If a patient is diagnosed in time for them to receive surgery, their chance of survival increases tenfold.
A recent patient survey found that more than 50% of pancreatic cancer patients had never heard of the disease before their own diagnosis. We were determined to change this lack of awareness and ultimately drive earlier diagnosis, which is why we worked with Team Darwin to devise a powerful campaign.
Shock factor
With a limited budget, it was vital that the advert would stand out and provoke thought and initiate discussionamong members of the public, the media and influencers.
This is when Team Darwin conceived the concept of the "I wish I had … " campaign. Pancreatic cancer sufferers are shown explaining that they wished they had breast, cervical or testicular cancer because their chances of survival would be greater. It reflects the genuine insight of many pancreatic cancer patients upon diagnosis, and how it feels to be diagnosed with a disease that leaves you with no hope at all.
As taboo as it may sound, when faced with a 3% chance of surviving more than five years, it is not unreasonable to wish for a cancer with a better survival rate. This is exactly how I felt when I was diagnosed with the disease in 2007.
The decision to run this campaign was not taken lightly, and we carried out a fair amount of research to understand what the likely reaction was going to be.
We also exposed the campaign to many people, including those who'd been affected by the cancers mentioned in the campaign, as well as those who'd been affected by pancreatic cancer itself.
The result was that we knew that once people understood the copy in the advert, the risk of genuine offence was very low. We also knew that the response generated was strong and was therefore likely to lodge in people's memories – thus helping our objectives of raising awareness of this terrible disease and its symptoms.
All the adverts feature real pancreatic cancer patients who genuinely feel that way. None of them hesitated in taking part in the campaign. What these patients are wishing for are better odds than those they are facing.
While the direct criticisms that we have received are in their hundreds, millions of people are now aware of pancreatic cancer who weren't a week ago. And they're now becoming aware of the symptoms. As well as a huge increase in views of our symptoms page, we have received phone calls from people wanting to find out more. The attention this campaign has received has also paved the way for a symptoms-awareness campaign that we launched on the London tube this week.
Our aim is to save lives and that is achieved by early diagnosis, which come from creating awareness wherever and whichever way we can.
Ali Stunt is the chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer Action.
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