Gerry Farrell: ‘We didn’t want this to be a dull public message’

IT IS a big challenge getting women to take responsibility for their health and this required a bold solution. I think we have that.

IT IS a big challenge getting women to take responsibility for their health and this required a bold solution. I think we have that.

Elaine was the perfect choice to appear as she is well known, well-loved and has personal experience of this emotive issue.

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We didn’t set out to shock rather to inform, but at the same time we wanted to show real images of real women with real cancer. You don’t see that often so it was a brave decision to make.

We didn’t want this to be a dull public announcement. We used humour getting Elaine to comment on one of the images that they were “Three kids later ones”. That was important, to show empathy and understanding.

We want people to drop their guard when they see this, to sit up and watch and listen to what is being said.

This is as real as it gets and the focus groups who watched it said that the campaign struck the right balance between entertaining and, even more importantly, informing.

• Gerry Farrell is Creative Director at Leith Agency