ASA will investigate 'I wish I had breast cancer' adverts

28 Feb 2014 News

The I Wish I Had Breast Cancer campaign, by Pancreatic Cancer Action

The Advertising Standards Authority has decided to investigate the Pancreatic Cancer Action ‘I wish I had breast cancer’ adverts after receiving more than 100 complaints.

When the campaign, which features real-life pancreatic cancer patients saying they would rather have a different type of cancer, first aired at the beginning of February it attracted criticism from breast cancer charities and national media outlets.

An ASA spokesman said: “Having assessed the complaints we consider that an investigation is warranted and are liaising with the charity.”

In response to the investigation, Ali Stunt, chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer Action, said: “It was genuinely never our intention to upset people with these adverts but we wanted to highlight a little-known, poorly understood and chronically underfunded disease.

"All cancer is dreadful and these adverts were never suggesting that anyone's suffering resulting from cancer is worse than another's.  It simply expresses the real thoughts and feelings of many pancreatic cancer patients faced with a 3 per cent chance of survival who just want more hope.”

The charity is no longer running the hard-hitting awareness campaign, and followed up with a symptoms-led campaign.

Earlier this week the charity announced that one of the faces of the campaign, Kerry Harvey, passed away last weekend.

 

pancreatic-cancer-action-ad-full250_2.jpg

 

 

More on