Advertising Campaign for Testicular Cancer
Aims to Keep Men Abreast of the Situation

June 3, 1999

Strictly embargoed: 10.30am Thursday June 3 1999.

Men caught admiring a woman's naked breasts on a new advertising campaign will get more than a pleasing eyeful. They will become better informed about testicular cancer, cases of which are doubling every 20 years in the UK, and be in a stronger position to detect potential problems.

The campaign, which has been donated to The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) by leading agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, features a photograph of a pair of breasts with the strap line "No wonder male cancers are ignored. These are all you ever think about."

A second press advertisement shows a cranial map with each segment of the brain carrying a different slang word for breasts. It carries the first sentence of the strap line above.

Unveiled today (Thursday June 3) by the ICR at the start of its second annual everyman male cancer awareness month, the adverts are aimed at men of 35 or younger who are in the danger age range for testicular cancer. It is designed to counteract male apathy and ignorance about their health, and to encourage men to turn their attention from women's bodies to their own.

They coincide with the publication of a MORI opinion poll which confirms that most men are ignorant about male cancers, do not like to talk about their health, but feel there is too little information available to them on the subject.

Young men in particular have a poor record for testicular cancer - 68 per cent say they know little or nothing about it and 49 per cent said they had never checked their testicles for lumps or abnormalities. Only 8 per cent of young men name personal health issues as a common topic of conversation, although in contrast, 59 per cent regularly talk about women.

Although it has around a 96 per cent cure rate if caught and treated early, the incidence of testicular cancer has doubled in the last 20 years and scientists remain baffled as to the causes.

John Heyd, Marketing Manager for everyman commented: "Although the advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young men, we hope it will also be noticed by men of all ages. The main part of the advertisement says "No wonder male cancers are ignored" - this is also true of prostate cancer, which is the other big subject of the everyman campaign, and affects men mostly over 60.

"We chose to focus in this particular advert on testicular cancer, but if people phone up for our new leaflet they will find it covers prostate cancer too. We also hope that women will notice the adverts, because our poll shows the majority of young men talk to their mothers rather than any other close relative or friend about their health, and older men talk to their partners."

Notes to editors:

1. Professor Colin Cooper, development director of the ICR's Male Urological Cancer Centre, is available for comment or interview. Requests should be made to Katy Bell or Sadie East on 0171 970 6030.

2. The ICR everyman campaign was launched in September 1997 to increase awareness of testicular and prostate cancer and to raise funds for the UK's first dedicated research facility into male cancers.

3. The ICR promotes a simple self-examination for testicular cancer in a special leaflet that is available by telephoning 0171 352 8188.

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