Awareness

I have made a decision. I am going to sort out this awareness issue. I have banged on about this before but I think something has to change. Awareness won't cure MND directly but with better awareness there is more chance of raising funds which will fund research, which WILL result in a cure - one day. Also and almost as importantly MND sufferers will get immense satisfaction from seeing their plight brought to the masses. No longer will we have to sit in our wheelchairs, paralysed, tube fed and silent while we watch campaigns and hear about scientific breakthroughs in cancer MS or HIV. Of course many more people are directly and indirectly affected by these illnesses but for the 4500 of us MND sufferers in the UK, that fact is irrelevant.


The MNDA has limited funds and can only allocate a small percentage to awareness campaigns. My viewpoint on their previous campaigns is likely to upset the parties involved but I see no point in everyone patting each other on the back when nothing is improving. One campaign featured an advert with an acted MND sufferer being thrown around the room by an invisible force and losing clothing in the process, leaving her at the end, sitting in a wheelchair in her underwear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-h_XBArC4&eurl=http://www.sarahsstory.org.uk/&feature=player_embedded


The fact that I didn't feel it represented what MND is like to suffer is irrelevant, but the fact that it was considered by the censors to be to be unsuitable for TV transmission and only got limited exposure in some cinemas, meant it was a missed opportunity. Last year's campaign called the Incurable Optimist was a web based campaign as well as billboard posters.

http://www.mndassociation.org/news_and_events/awareness_campaigns/incurable_optimism/incurable_optimism.html

I liked the campaign, and Patrick, like Sarah in the other campaign are remarkable, inspiring people. I am not criticising them for a second, but I suspect that the only people that have heard of them, noticed the campaign at the time or can recall it now are MND patients. And we are perfectly well aware already, thanks.

So what is the plan. There needs to be an ongoing campaign and there is only one way to get people to notice and that is a powerful TV advert. I know this is ambitious, but I don't believe it's impossible. At this stage I don't have many details but preliminary research suggests that if you avoid the absolute prime slots, you can get a 30 second slot on ITV1 for between 2500 and 5000. If you go with ITV2, 3 or 4 the costs (obviously as are viewers) are significantly lower.

http://www.itvmedia.co.uk/assets/itvmedia/content/downloadables/spot%20costs%20-%20itv%20media%20-%20itv1%20and%20multichannel%20-%20feb%202010.pdf


Its not cheap but look at it like this. If everyone in the UK with MND contributed £10 a month it would raise around £500k per annum. I appreciate that for some people would not be able to afford it, but then again most patients will have friends and family that would also contribute. Surely it would be possible to get 5-7000 contributors. This could fund an advert 3 times a week during the early evening. Sure, it isn't going to saturate the airwaves but it would be a vast improvement on the current situation.

All this is embryonic now; I have some good ideas for a powerful advert and I might know someone that can make it. I don't know if commercial TV advertising departments would accept such a diluted schedule or how to contact the potential contributors.

Maybe this is unrealistic, I don't know but I am frustrated that since being diagnosed, nothing has changed. I haven't heard it mentioned on TV, let alone a feature on it! The only references I can think of are comic references to Stephen Hawking, which leads me back to an earlier entry. In business you learn that outcomes never change if your strategy remains the same and this is no different. MND has been known about for over 80 years but because of relatively low levels of research there still isn't a single drug that has any real impact. If nothing changes I can't see that anything other than minimal benefit treatments for the foreseeable future.


I would be interested in everybody's opinions and advice.
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