‘Nightmarish’ stroke serial killer ad banned
An ad that portrays stroke as a serial killer, and features a man smashing a brain with a hammer, has been banned by the Advertising Standards Board.
The ASB ruled that the ad for National Stroke Foundation, created by the now-defunct agency DraftFCB Melbourne, did not contain enough health information on stroke, and the violent nature of the ad was unjustified.
In its defence, the NSF said that after ten years of campaigning to reduce the impact of stroke, a recent survey found that only six per cent of Australians think that stroke is a health concern. “This campaign has certainly got people to talk about stroke”, the NSF told the ASB.
One does not simply ban a violent stroke Ad without banning a vaginal discharge one…
I don’t like these kind of rulings. On their very own website, the ASB says the 30 second advertisement:
• Tells the view that one in six people has a potential killer lurking inside them
• Tells the viewer stroke is the second biggest killer of Australians
• Conveys the message that for 12,000 people each year stroke leaves them significantly disabled or kills them – by using a brain we are able to educate people that stroke is a ‘brain attack’
• Asks people to Help Fight Stroke and gives the address http://www.fight against stroke
The longer ad also explains stroke can cause brain damage which may lead to loss of the ability to speak or to the loss of bladder control.
If that’s not enough health information for 30sec I don’t know what is.
As for the violence, one complainant said “The actor is depicted in a menacing manner when he wields his scalpel in an effort to frighten people.”
Hmm, sounds familiar. Do the ASB not remember this ad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U219eUIZ7Qo
If those drones at the ASB want to show evidence of industry why don’t they do it with something meaningless and leave attempts at public good alone?
As a stroke survivor, I’m kind of conflicted about this ad. I see the point about it not being “educational”, and it could be construed as misleading about the after-effects of surviving one (my speech, cognition and bladder are all fine); as I learned during my own post-stroke rehab, stroke affects people in a wide range of ways and to greatly differing degrees.
On the other hand, I was surprised to observe that we don’t actually see the brain getting hammered directly, making the thing rather less grotesque than the description led me to expect. On the whole it’s probably not really any worse than the anti-smoking ad with the brain being cut open and a big bloodclot flowing forth.
Good ad, and what exactly is the ASB protecting us from here?
Surely if only 6% of us realise that the second biggest killer of Australians is a significant health issue, then we can live with a few people being disturbed for the overall health benefits – just like we do with the graphic anti-smoking ads. And in our connected world, do we really need to explain to people that they can find out more on the internet with a specific call to action to make the ad okay?
This is ridiculous, absurd and way over the top reaction by the ASB. Stroke is one of Australia’s biggest killers and is all too often under recognised.
This ad campaign has certainly got people talking which I think is fabulous. James, I can understand your point about not every stroke being as catastrophic.
However, many strokes are preventable and sometimes hard hitting ad campaigns are what is needed. – Look at the success of the Grim Reaper advertisement or gruesome images on cigarette packaging. Controversial yes – but full of impact.
I see people present all too often to the acute stroke unit with a stroke that may have been preventable. There is urgent need to raise the profile of stroke in the Australian community.
A sad day for adverstising regulation – Seriously ASB?
Extremely disappointed healthcare professional. –
The Silent Killer stroke advertising campaign has resulted in more compliments than complaints. The feedback we have had is very positive and people understand the rationale for going with a strong, ‘out of the box’ campaign to draw attention to stroke. The advertisement is confronting but then so is the aftermath of a stroke. The decision to take the approach that we took was not made overnight nor taken lightly. After more than ten years of tireless campaigning to ensure services are available to reduce the impact of stroke on all Australians, a recent survey showed that only 6% of people thought it was a health concern. This is coupled with the fact that people affected by stroke are often unable to get appropriate care and support because it is not a high priority for government either. We know things should be better than this but could not get people to understand the impact that stroke has on individuals and those affected by it. This campaign has certainly got people to talk about stroke. We will work with the team that produced the ad to tighten the call to action and air the commercials in 2013.
Awareness is king. ASB are wowsers.
WOW. Nice work from the Stroke Foundation. Talk about your throwback to the Grim Reaper campaign. Congrats to Erin Lalor and her team for putting this out there.
What’s the ruling with ads like these being banned but then being made available on sites like Mumbrella and YouTube etc? I wish more clients had the nuts to do this kind of work.
ASB appear to have missed the point rather. Unless they are aiming for some back-handed PR furore to help the NSF.
Strange. And best of luck to NSF. Their FAST campaign is a sound one.
That is a memorable ad. I think the nanny idiots have won again. Why do we listen to 0.00000003% of the population?