What do you think of our new ad campaign?

I am sorry but along with few others on here I hate you advert. To the point that I now switch off my TV Box each time it appears…. I find it very disressing, and the last thing I need in my life is to be reminded in this fashion, that just about everyone I loved has fallen prey to Cancer – The thought (presumption) that I do not already contribute, adds insult to injury — I have the guilt-trip already thank you – Now kindly leave my choices with me.

I think your adverts are unbearably cruel for people who have lost a loved one to cancer. All of your adverts for the past ten years have been a torture, especially the one featuring ‘Fields Of Gold’ depicting families enduring important occasions (first day at school, wedding etc.) without the loved one there, but with echoes of how it might have been. I become very upset just thinking about that advert, which happened to run just as my family lost the person we loved and made it so much harder.

I avoid your adverts like the plague, and in the current one, can only identify with the person left alone and crying on the couch. I think people who have been touched by cancer are more likely to give to charities like yours than those who have not (my family certainly does), so it would be kinder to give us a break from having to see on screen what is endured every day. I don’t think the emotional blackmail is necessary.

Am sorry but I have to agree with some…why do cancer adverts have to be utterly heart wrenching! Many many many families have been dealt that horrible blow of having some one diagnosed with cancer..every time I turn on my tv and see these adverts takes me right back to that black depression and the memories of the pain of watching someone I love going through the terrible, painful disease. Why can’t it be factual show us the people that have got through it, through there help and sure mention the ones who don’t! I agree with showing victims of the disease through smoking drinking etc…self inflicted with the aim of trying to stop people damaging and risking their health! Let me know what the cancer charity does…don’t hurt us anymore many of us don’t need to be reminded of the killer and many will quickly turn it off because it’s just to hard!

the new add july 2010,Is very hard hitting on my wife who has cancer.Is also very hard hitting on her children they get very upset .. also is very had hitting on a freind who has cancer ,and very very upsetting to her young children …I dont kno any one else with cancer ..BUT I do kno a lot of people who dont have cancer ..And it dose’nt bother them at all infact they don’t even kno what the problem is ,,well they would’nt would they,please dont upset people with cancer ..TARGET THOSE THAT DONT may be shock them into thinking they might get it ,

These adverts are nothing more than emotional blackmail.
It’s disgusting, we have just found out that my mother in law’s bowel cancer has moved to her lungs and is now terminal, there is nothing more that can be done for her.
My wife and her brothers and sisters are having a hard enough time dealing with this as it is without feeling sad/upset and bursting into tears every time this advert comes on.

You should be ashamed of yourselves for attempting such a crude attempt at fund raising.

It’s crude, upsetting and should be stopped IMMEDIATELY!

As a cancer patient I find the current campaign extremely upsetting, not just me but my family find the negative ending extremely depressing,it is difficult enough getting through each day. Maybe the millions of pounds you have spent on these ads could have been put to better use. I hope you take this comment on board and bring these ‘adverts’ to an end as soon as possible.

I am disappointed with your tv ad which mentions cancer recurrence. It would seem this is central to your marketing theme this year as there was also a lady talking live about her recurrence at the Race for Life event I ran this year.

As a survivor of breast cancer myself (5 years in), recurrence is NOT something I want to hear about.

I suspect you’re trying to raise funds by any means but this is not the way forward. If you want my continued support, I suggest you come up with a “Plan B”.

For people currently arriving at this post via Google – our 2010 campaign ad is here:

http://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2010/07/11/our-new-advertising-campaign-tell-us-what-you-think/

Iain Mcintosh, I am sorry to hear about Fiona! & I hope she rests in peace and that all your family are well! My Mum was just 5 yrs older than your sister, 46 yrs old and I lost her almost 1 yr ago on 26/07/2009, so this advert was the last campaign she took part in & of that I am extremely proud of her, especially having to say the words “It isn’t a fight we always win”.
This impacted on my message to my Mum that I read out at her funeral. I just hope that all of us can be as strong as she was and have the courage to reach out to others for their help when our time comes, whether we go due to cancer or any other illness or simply of old age!
I wish EVERYONE the best opportuities possible in life and hope that like many of the people who have commented here will Buck their ideas up and pull together through whatever gruelling times may come!

Best Wishes!!! x

I absolutely love the advert, as it is the only picture I have of my Mum and I get to hear her voice again so she remains fresh in my thoughts! If it wasn’t for this advert I would have nothing to remind me of her! I love you Mum! xxx

That is my Mum at the end in the blue head scarf! RIP MUM – I Miss you and Love you loads, always will! Forever in my heart and thoughts! xxxx

Advertising campaign very emotional and does the trick, know so many who now are contributing. I myself have an aggressive late stage 3 breast cancer about to have a mastectomy had six months of chemo and just finished, need herceptin for a year not to mention usual radiotherapy. I would love to help the campaign I have two sons who are 11 (going on 111!!) and 17 yrs of age. The youngest has everyone crying he says to me that when he thinks of my cancer he thinks of the words to “aint no mountian high enough” and how we all together will climb this mountain and get to the top. He is designing a mountain in D T in high school. The adverts turn us all to tears and my youngest has said he would like to help too. Great campaign never thought I really didnt understand cancer – when anyone asks me I tell them the real truth always saying if you really dont want to know dont ask. best of luck the adverts have made me realise how much research is so important for cancer in all areas.

I have to say that I agree with Jonathan that this advert made me angry. I have lost several family members to cancer, young people that left behind grieving children and families. £2 per month maybe, could, perhaps, at some point find a cure for this devastating illness. It could also be spent on mosquito nets to help prevent the 1.272 million deaths per year world wide form malaria, or on clean water to prevent the 1.4 million children dying every year from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. I find all the recent Cancer Research UK adverts manipulative and a little self indulgent, however devastating cancer is, and is to devastating to sufferers and their loved ones, how lucky are we that this is the greatest illness we will have to face in the western world?

I’m 25 and i’ve had an abnormal smear result- the progress made in this area makes me realise how lucky i am that cancer research are doing so much to research and carry on testing in this field. But I do worry about the length of time it’s taking to raise the same awareness about male cancers.

And why has nothing been done about the daily mail and their ridiculous articles dissuading people from getting the vaccine?

Hi

I just wanted to say i have been through cancer and it is horrible. But you can beat it using cancer reaserch it is great it saves so many lives. Thankyou.

Meghan

hi
my father recently was diagnosed with brain caner and it truly is horrible, and i respect everyone who helps to fight it and prevent it.

however this advert, as i see some people have also stated, made me very sad and slightly angry simply because it relived that moment when i had to be told about it and that it was terminal. in fact the whole family was watching tv when in came on so hit all of us hard.

i am a graphic design student and in terms of design of advertising using shock tactics it is a good advert, to much of shock adverts are made to be to shocking to the point when we are just numb to them now.
i am currently in the process of doing my dissertation and have chosen shock tactics because of this advert, and i want to ask ‘shock tactics: who is it really affecting?’ to delve into weather shock tactics are working on the general public anymore due to our desensitization thanks to the media, and if instead they are merely hitting those already affected by the contents’ issues – which is not needed.

so i would love if any of you reading this feel the same as i do, or even an opposing point for me to consider when writing my essay, could get in contact by writing a reply on this wall so that i can gain greater incite into this topic.

thankyou, and my heart goes out to everyone else who is affected by this horrible disease .

Hye, I first saw your advert the day before I had a lump checked out in my breast in Kings College Hospital, it scared me and strangley enough, the next day, the consultant didnt like my lump and I had an immediate mammogram, scan and biopsy and yes, I was told a week later, it was cancer. It was the most horrible moment of my life. I have since had a lumpectomy, am going through chemo which hopefully finishes Dec 21st and then will have to have a mascectomy and reconstruction. I hope to one day next year to be able to say that I am cured, like the people in your advert. Your advert, terrifying as it is, is heartrending but gets right to the heart.It shows normal people who have gone through hell and come out the other side and that is why people should donate. I have done the Race for Life three times and have now got a little job in my local Cancer Research shop.Its the least I can do and I hope that next year, I can do the Race for Life again

I think this advert really captures the emotions of those diagnosed with cancer. I was diagnosed recently with ovarian cancer and the advert is spot on with how i felt about finding out and having to tell my family members and friend. The advert is also very uplifting and every time i see it i feel positive about my future and hope one day to be a cancer survivor with a story to tell. I dont think the advert is worded incorrectly….cancer is very aggressive and i am currently ‘fighing’ it and will ‘beat’ it!

I am saddened to hear that fiona passed away, my thoughts are with all her friends and family. People dont always beat cancer and it is because of this that the work of cancer research UK is essential. If an advert of this nature encourages people to donate money to them then surely we should be grateful that cancer patients and survivors were willing to share their story.

I find the advert is incorrectly worded.
‘beat cancer’ is aggressive, brutal, violent not a good thing in it.
The wording should be.
‘together let us heal cancer’. this is caring, gentle, loving, conducive to the good, conducive to health.

I too wish to say how sorry I am to hear Fiona died. I lost my wife to cancer 2.5 years ago, after an 18 month fight. There isn’t a minute that goes past when she is not in my thoughts. Please don’t mourn her passing, celebrate the life you had with her.
Carolan. I would like to say please don’t take it to heart the comments some people are making on the bournemouth echo website. As my Mum always used to say, “you can’t educate pork, don’t bother trying”

So sorry to hear that sad news.
There are few of us whose lives haven’t been touched in some way by cancer, me included. Personally I like the advert. I hope it helps to raise lots of money in the hope that one day there will be a cure for all who have cancer so that their lives will not be cut short and they can stay with the one who love them. If you are fighting cancer now I wish you well. x

My sister Fiona Crompton who was proud to have taken part in this ad, sadly passed away yesterday 11/09/09 at the age of just 41, she leaves a husband and 2 wonderful children aged 13 & 11 she was surrounded by her family and friends and went peacefully. For everyone who is fighting this horrible illness carry on fighting, and for all the people who want to knock this ad campaign please just shut up and pray you never have someone close to you taken too soon

I’m really sorry that Jane Parsons finds our new advert upsetting. Our intention was to show the great progress that is being made in beating cancer while reminding people that we need funds to continue to make that progress.

Of course advertising costs money but we keep costs to a minimum and for every person who saw this advert each time, it cost us less than a penny. And don’t forget that it’s raised money too. The number of new people donating to us dramatically increased during the weeks that the advert was on television (it’s now finished).

Developing new drugs costs hundreds of millions of pounds so research charities have to rely on the pharmaceutical industry to make that investment. Any discoveries made by our scientists which could lead to new drugs, diagnostic tools or vaccines to treat cancer are protected by our commercial and development company Cancer Research Technology (CRT). And the royalties we receive from treatments developed by our scientists go straight back into the pot to fund further research to aid the development of even more drugs to help in our fight to beat cancer.

Thousands of cancer patients benefit from drugs that Cancer Research UK has helped to develop. Our doctors and scientists have contributed to 19 of the top 20 drugs used to treat people with cancer worldwide today. For example they helped to discover and develop two of the most widely used cancer drugs in the world – carboplatin and cisplatin – which are used to treat ovarian, lung and testicular cancer.

Carolan Davidge
Director of PR and Brand, Cancer Research UK

Everytime I turn on the TV I am faced with Cancer Research UK’s advertising campaign.
I am a cancer victim and I am APPALLED at the amount of generous people’s donations you are spending on advertising. How can you justify this??? Still I suppose it explains why you are number 1 on the UK charities rich list and at least your research produces more drugs to put money in the drug companies pockets. A shame that we’re getting to the stage where the very people who give you money more than likely won’t be able to get those drugs on the NHS.
Give the money to the Environmental Working group or the Chem Trust if you really want to help stop cancer. Otherwise give it to Marie Curie who actually HELP cancer victims.

As a person who was diagnosed with cancer in the last few months, I was appalled by your recent advert. It makes me cry everytime it pops up in front of me and I have to turn it off as quickly as possible. I find it very offensive/

This is a highly controversial subject as it will effect so many…so if you are disgusted with by my comments…I am disgusted with Cancer..I disgusted with Advertising..we must see commercialism…and that is what it is as a weapon of mass destruction..how are we to harness it for GO! It is a terrible shame John Webster isn’t alive anymore..he created GREAT ADS..he was looking at it a different way…he created Smash get smash, George the Bear, the VW adds..and see what he was seeing..

If you are a BRAND..and that what we are talking about here..rather than CANCER RESEARCH…Then except FUNDING and have some arrogance about it..

Create images that are different..off beat..wackey..strange..heart breaking…because we will all fall in love..and some may contract this disease..some may not but give it and those suffering some dignity…and look at it with some creativity and imagination!

This is totally ON MESSAGE..and the POINT! Sorry if my thoughts are too controversial but you are lucky to read them!They are all I have left…give me that..at least! Words and images are very powerful..keep it real…advertising is having a far greater effect on the world than we realise..

David Michael- try walking a mile in my shoes and then tell me you disagree. Maybe a constructive criticism would gain your comment more credibility.

And Ant, i appreciate no name dropping in your comment, and no i dont agree with any adverts who exploit negative emotions to get donations, try showing us what the charities already been able to do and explain what they need the extra donations for and what they’re planning on doing, give the audience a pro-active roll in the charity, giving updates on progress. Im not asking to be shaded from the truth, i just think there are much better and more positive ways of gaining donations.

Response to Peter Dawe – although you are right in sying that cancer can change the body and that sufferers are vulnerable to contracting the disease again, I don’t think that it’s true to say you cannot beat cancer. I am nearly 20 years out from my treatment and consider that I have beaten cancer.

In terms of the advert in general, I think it is extremely uplifting to see so many people who have beaten the disease; but it is a fact of life that not everone does and its important to reiterate that research needs to continue.

It would be interesting to know whether the people who don’t like this advert also object to, for example, aid agencies showing pictures of starving chidren in order to raise funds? Without adverts like this it would be very easy for people to forget that charities need ongoing support to make a real difference – and sometimes we need to be shocked out of our cosy little worlds and remember what’s happening out there.

I strongly disagree with Ollie Gapper!

In the evening, most people take time to relax and enjoy a sense of escapism. This advert i feel deprives the people and families living with cancer of this luxury by constantly reminding them of the burden hanging over them. I think, as do the people i know who are suffering, the rest of my family and my sister, who suffers from stress realted seizures, find this advert a disgusting inappropriate way to raise funds. As a family, we raise money evvery year for cancer research and have contributed greatly to its funds, however if the funds are going the be used to remind sufferers and there families of the dread they watch television to escape, whats the point? My sister is forced to switch the channel, as if she doesnt it can lead to a seizure ultimately leading to a ruined evening and a generally low spririted week. I feel ads like this need to be banned as it is in no way fair to use guilt to suck funds out of people when 90% of people who watch the ads are already contributing. I will be contacting ofcom to notify them of my disgust

I am a Prostate Cancer survivor and I am pleased and proud to have been involved in the Cancer Research UK campaign TV advert. I was an Ambassador for Cancer Research UK before my own diagnosis and continue to be so.

I have had numerous telephone calls, e-mails and personal feed-back from family, friends and colleagues about the Cancer Research UK campaign TV advert. They have all been very positive and very supportive, of my involvement, the other participants and the efforts of Cancer Research UK.

Last month, I lost a very dear friend to breast cancer at 32, after a 5-year fight. I know that I will lose at least one more friend, currently 26, who has had stage III & IV brain tumours for 18 months. We know it’s terminal. We know it’s a waiting game. We know it’s probably weeks or months, not years.

So just to set the stage, this is extremely close for me, and I’m grieving.

I respond badly to emotional blackmail, which is how this campaign feels to me (for example, when badgered on the phone by the Red Cross to increase my donation for 15 minutes flat, my response was to cancel my direct debit; I now give only to specific funds for them e.g. the Australian Bush Fires Appeal). I appreciate that it was not the conscious intention of your campaign to blackmail people into reaching into their pockets.

Therefore I will in future direct my fundraising to Marie Curie and Macmillan, because cancer patients deserve every penny of support I can give. But I don’t feel I can support a charity, for whom I have fundraised and donated £XX (I’m not going to get into a contest as to who’s donated what), and they “repay” me with an advert like this that quite frankly makes me feel guilty for being alive, healthy and, so far, cancer-free.

I’m only glad I didn’t see this advert until last week, because if I’d seen it when launched – the day after Emily died – I’d have been running the Hyde Park Race for Life with a whole load of resentment, which would have been wrong, but running nonetheless because people had sponsored me and I couldn’t *not* run.

To reiterate, I appreciate this is my unbalanced and knee-jerk reaction as I work through the grieving process, and that you will definitely get a lot of support as a result of this campaign. But I thought you needed to know that you’re going to lose some, too.

Nobody “beats” Cancer. Once you contract the disease, your body will never be the same again, and you will always be vulnerable to a recurrence. The best you can hope for is long term remission. With modern treatment, this is more and more likely. However, you will never “beat” Cancer and to pretend that this is possible is a cruel deception of sufferers.

Dear Carolan Davidge

Thanks for your response. I knew that you would not disclose the huge amount spent on this advert. It would be interesting to hear how you arrive at the 1p – I think you should have been a politician! I am not suggesting for one moment that you do not need to run a fund raising campaign, it’s just the way you go about it. I am fully aware of the good work your Charity does, otherwise our family charitable trust would not have made regular donations to you over the past years.

Anyway I think at this point we should agree to disagree and I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to make my comments on your blog.

I am glad to see a response from D Saunders, but am still sorry to hear that he/she does not appreciate our advertising.

Cancer Research UK’s work has saved millions of lives in the UK and across the world and thanks to our work, more people are beating cancer than ever before. We fund the work of more than 4,500 researchers, doctors and nurses throughout the UK. We support over 100 clinical trials, testing new drugs and treatments for cancer and we are studying cancer and cancer risk in over a million people in the UK.

However, the reality is that none of this crucial work comes without significant costs and our research is funded entirely by donations from the public. It is for this reason that we are highlighting the need for further support in our recent advertising.
It is true that we have received a good mix of responses to our advertising on this blog, although on the whole we have received positive feedback. I would like to re-assure Mr Saunders that we are keen to hear everyone’s views, hence the reason for this post on our blog. Furthermore, we do not shy away from taking feedback on board and changing our work as and where necessary.

In this case however, all of the measures we have put in place to assess the performance of our advertising are showing extremely positive signs. In addition, we have been extremely conscious of the need to invest carefully by ensuring that costs have been kept to an absolute minimum when running this advertising campaign. For example, this advert has not been filmed in a studio but in cost-free or very low cost environments. Moreover, as the ad featured real people, not actors, and we used a very small production crew, our staff fees have been kept to a minimum. And we have negotiated extremely hard with media owners to make the most of our investment. So much so, we expect that for each opportunity for people to see the television advert it will cost the charity less than 1p.

Whilst I appreciate that D Saunders does not like our advertising in this case, I believe that it is absolutely necessary to carry out this type of activity in order to ensure that we can achieve our goals in the future.

Carolan Davidge
Director of PR and Brand, Cancer Research UK

Further to my previous comments on the 30th July, I have now received a reply from CRUK trying to justify this advertisement. However it is clear from the above comments that a lot of people are frightened and offended by it. But we cannot expect CRUK to admit the errors they have made with this advert as it would confirm what a huge amount of the
Charity’s money has been wasted. I am sure that a successful and more tactful and sensitive advert could have been made for less cost. Perhaps CRUK would like to disclose on this blog the total cost of putting this controversial advert on TV, radio and internet. But I doubt if they will.

I always love your adverts. I lost my Grandad a few years ago to mouth cancer and it was the hardest thing i’ve ever been through.
I think some peoples comments on here are disgusting and quite frankly, RUDE. How dare you come on here and be THAT insensitive?

Here’s an idea…

Picture the scene on your flat screen.
The football terraces of Wembley.
England are playing Germany in the finals.

The crowds excited and all together.
“Come on England…Come on England”
then one man stands up and waves
his red and white scarf high in the sky
and shouts, “Come on Cancer…Come on Cancer
Kill me if you think you’re ‘ard enuff…
Kill me if you think you’re ‘ard enuff.”

Fear Nothing…Live your Life!

Cancer Research | Sponsors of the World Cup

—–

Now that is more like it!!

I HATE YOUR AD.

We are a country of great commercials and the secret is humour….HUMOUR. That is what England does best!

Why not laugh in the face of Cancer…rather than scare the country….We all have to die!

Africa does death so much better, especially Ghana who create fantascy coffins. If you are a plumber you are buried in a toilet…if you are a carpenter you are buried in a hammer…

I have seen a Mid-Wife be buried in a coffin in the shape of a Uterus..

Let us laugh in the face of death otherwise we are cowards one and all. Death comes to us all.

I would like to see those who have a sense of humour and when bald say – I’m Styling the Malignant Look – in the style of Rimmel London…

Or cough and say It’s fine…I just have a touch of Cancer…with the final phrase of Bring out your wicked side! Produced as if it was for an Alcopop Commercial..

Why are we so bloody serious!

We will never get through this without HUMOUR….

Can we as a Nation stand up to Cancer…stand up to Death and laugh in his face and say….Catch me if you can! Come on England…we’re better than this…

Taking the Disease seriously is a matter for the doctors and the scientists, we as the patients would like to be treated as people will grit and guts!

Create a site to hold the ads called CANCER-HA-HA.com

i am very upset by your invasive pop up .as a result of this i will not donate anymore funds to your cause

Mr Minett should get his facts right before accusing me of mocking the disease of cancer.
I have heard this ludicrous advert so many times today while relaxing with classic FM that I am heartily sickened with it and feel for the participants and their humiliation at having to perform.
Excruciating as this advert is I find it followed by a government warning explaining what it sounds like to be hit by an express train.
Wha a waste of resourses.

My doctor didn’t look me in the eye when I was diagnosed with the dreaded C. He wrote to me instead.
And fortunately Classic FM were not quite so desperate for advertising revenue then so I could listen to music without fear of a group of people terrorising me every 10 minutes.

Mr. Coates there is nothing silly about a deadly disease and as one of the participants in the advert I dont need reminding of anything, my grandfather is dying from cancer and if an advert like this can raise awareness of Cancer Research and its efforts to help him in his last days, so be it. This advert is 60 seconds long and nothing compared to the suffering of people with cancer who have to live with it everyday. I am really sorry you feel this way about the advert as I know everyone who took part in it was extremely proud to do it, so please dont take away this feeling away from them as this all all your comments serve to do.

my daughter, beth, hates the advert. she wishes she had breast cancer, at least then she would have a chance of life. She has primary liver cancer, and is 20 years old. there are no answers for her, no cure, no treatment, apart from the operation that she had last november. the cancer has come back, big time, only 9 months later. beth is an amazing person, really really brave and is now in our local hospice.

Steve Minett’s comments are rather silly and don’t really justify a reply. But I must remind him that all of us I guess have at some time been confronted with this scourge, as indeed I have in some way or another but we don’t all want to be terrorised by constant references to it that serve no other purpose than causing distress.
Cancer Research should do what they are paid to do and consentrate on research and leave the job of informing to experts.

I am sad you feel this way Sandie.At least you have finished your treatment and are hopefully doing well.I was in the advert and had breast cancer 7 years ago I am now having more chemo for bone cancer so I wanted to take part to raise awareness of how important fundraising is as without donations there will be no research to help you and I to live longer. Everyone in the advert is a real person not an actor so WE all know what it feels like to be told for real you have cancer. please don’t be upset we are trying to help.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I’m really sorry that the radio ad has caused Mr Coats such concern. The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre approved the ad for broadcast at any time of the day but I’d like to reassure Mr Coates that the audience we are targeting is an adult one and we have chosen radio stations that are predominantly listened to by the older generation.

We’re very proud of this advert. The cancer patients and survivors who took part in it are truly inspiring and I’d encourage Mr Coates to watch their films on our website.

http://www.thousandsbeatcancer.org/Home.aspx

Thousands of people are beating cancer, thanks to research, but we have so much more to do to defeat this devastating disease.

Carolan Davidge
Director of PR and Brand, Cancer Research UK

It never ceases to amaze me the narrowmindedness of some people. The only one who should be ashamed of themselves is you. If you want to hideaway in your only little fantasy world and pretend this things do’nt go on then please do. Do not come on here and make comments like you have, there are people who need support from organisations like Cancer Research because they are going through unimaginable horrors trying to fight this disease. If you dont like it turn it off, but dont come on here whinging about Vivaldis Four Seasons being interupted when people, lets make no bones about it,are dying from a disease where by the use of these adverts Cancer Research are trying to stop it.

You certainly know how to put the fear of God into people quietly listening to classical music.
Your offensive and objectionable advert on Classic FM should be confined to the 9pm watershed.
It is clearly unfit for day time listening especially for children.
You should be ashamed.

B.Coates

This is the most irritating advertisement that I have ever come across on the internet. It just will not go away and wastes about five minutes of my time every time it appears on my laptop. I just cannot get rid of it. It has made me determined to never donate any money to this cause. In fact I will never again even purchase anything from a cancer research charity shop. I’m begging you to get this ad off my computer, its just wasting so much of my time.

i thought the advert was amazing, no-one knows what its like to be told you have cancer and the effect it has on your family’s life, i know, and that puts into words what you could never tell anyone what it feels like
thank you

This ad made me cry – remembering those dear to me who lost their fight against cancer. But I also have great hope that through regular donations to CRUK I am doing a tiny bit to help the battle so that more people can win through back to health.

a wonderfully open, frank and heartwrenching advert! Everyone I know who has seen it cries their eyes out, hopefully they put their hands in their pockets too! Keep up the good work.

I sat in “that” chair 11 and 6 years ago but cried all over again watching this very moving & dramtic advert. I imagine I will every time I watch it.

I truly hope it brings in donations by the bucketload.

Such a shame a yearly Children in Need type fundraiser couldn’t be organised to boost the funds for everyone who works in Cancer research field, just a germ of an idea……..

All my grandparents,parents, brother and some friends have died of cancer, some of them at a youngish age. Other member of my extended family have successfully been treated for cancer.Very few of these people died of the common cancers.

Your advert brought many tears to me, but I hope it brings both awarences about cancer and more funds for CR.

A beautiful advert.

Very touching. Very close. Very hopeful.

Excellent advert. I was watching with my husband and two children, who are 21 and 18 and who lost their papa (my husbands father) in October 2007 to bone cancer, which started off as prostrate cancer 10 years previously. Without CRUK, he would never have lived that long, or as healthly as he did. The ad is very emotional, but one you can’t stop watching. Ww were very quiet after it, lost in our own thoughts, but it’s one of the best ad’s we’ve seen for a long time.

I realise that a lot of people feel very strongly pro this advert but I must say I absolutely hate it. Before anyone asks – yes I do have cancer – two terminal primaries in fact – breast cancer and leiomysarcoma of the inferior vena cava and have also lost my father and two brothers to cancer. Having got that out of the way, now on to why I dislike the advert: I hate the intercutting between everyone’s voices and the way in which people act out how they first felt when told about having cancer – it just feels manufactured to me and too arty for its own good. I now realise after reading some of the comments above, that the participants did actually have cancer but before being told this, I could have sworn that they were actors – I didn’t feel that it echoed how I felt at all, I felt stunned when told but couldn’t possibly recreate this for the camera – I think that’s why to me, it comes across as so false. I always get cross when the advert appears and make a quick exit from the room. I feel a bit mean critising and I do hope it helps you raise more money but to me it still is an exceptionally irritating advert!

Hello again. I’m very surprised to see the comments from Chris Shepherd. Cancer Research UK contributes almost a third of the Institute for Cancer Research’s income – we are its largest funder. Last year we funded over £26m of research there.

And contrary to Chris’ comments, we are a very efficient charity. Excluding our retail activities, 81 pence of every pound donated to us is available to spend on our research, information and influencing public policy activities.

We need to raise over £400 million every year to fund our work. Our advertising campaign, which was planned for July and August over six months ago, will help us do that.

Carolan Davidge
Director of PR and Brand, Cancer Research UK

I’m really sorry that D Saunders has not received a reply to a letter. I will investigate this and will contact him/her directly.

I’m also sorry if the advert has caused some people to be upset. Our intention in the advert was to show the huge progress that has been made in treating cancer, and the many people alive today thanks to the advances made in research.

However, it would not be right for us to paint a picture of overwhelming success. For too many people, cancer is still a death sentence – the disease kills someone in the UK every four minutes. And while half of all people diagnosed with cancer now survive, the other half do not.

We need to remind everyone that we still have a long way to go to beat cancer and we can only make progress with people’s support.

Carolan Davidge
Director of PR and Brand, Cancer Research UK

I like the ad. I like the work of Cancer Research UK; Cancer Research is a passion of mine and is important to just about everyone I know. HOWEVER I think it is incredibly mean of CRUK to launch ‘Thousands Beat Cancer’ just a week after The Institute of Cancer Research launch their 100 Faces campaign. They are almost identical. CRUK are too big, too inefficient and have a monopoly on cancer research in the United Kingdom. If anyone wants to see ICRs campaign, which I am quite sure cost considerably less to set up, then please visit http://www.icr100.org. ICR is 100 years old this year and has one of the best track records in the World for Cancer Research. Sadly, we are over shadowed by CRUKs over bearing corporate branding initiatives.

The ad works very well it is very effective especially as most of us have lost someone to cancer it brings the point of the importance of research to the forefront of the viewers minds.

This advert is using scare tactics and people’s fears in order to obtain donations, which I think is wrong. Has anyone thought of the shock and worry it causes to anyone undergoing cancer diagnosis – I know of two friends in this situation who were both very upset, particularly when it makes it clear at the end that not everyone can be cured – we all know this!! Everyone is aware of the horrors of cancer and do not need to have it damatised on television. If your Charity must spend huge amounts of money on prime time TV ads then it would be more constructive if it concentrated on the good news regarding the excellent research progress your Charity has helped to make possible.

I am sure that all of the people taking part in the advert did it for the best possible reasons and I would not criticise them personally – but please think of the effect it has on other people.

Being a trustee of a family Trust which has donated regularly to this Charity, I wrote to them some weeks ago, expressing my views, but have not as yet received a reply! In future our Charity will certainly look to support other cancer Charities who do not waste so much money on TV scare tactics.

Sue – co-incidentally, we’re just editing the radio version now! I’ll drop you an email.

Cheers

Henry

Hi guys, we were talking about this advert the other day – it’s very powerful – do you have a radio version of it? Please if someone gets a chance, email me.

Regards Sue

WORST ADVERT EVER!!
I RESENT HAVING A FLASHING IMAGE ON SCREEN WHILE IM TRYING TO READ!
MUCH MORE ANNOYING THAN READING CAPS!

I would simply like to add this, I have lost my Father, two younger sisters, and Grand Parents to this awful disease, and currently I am just blown away by my older sisters strength in fighting this disease,…. people are of course entitled to their opinion (Mr Ward), but knowing that the loved ones I have lost died at a time (20 years ago)when many aspects/problems had not yet been discovered or if they had, we didnt know how to treat them, where as now BECAUSE of the work that people like CRUK work so tiredlessly to achieve THANK GOD my older sister is still here,so regardless of your opinion (Mr Ward) the figures speak for them selves, and yet as the advert rightly points out ”We are far from where we need to be”, but maybe in another 20 years (J Bunn), just maybe we’ll be a little closer, but unless we keep donating time AND money, we will never know, and like so people above have already said, I too am of the opinion that if adverts like this pull on peoples heart strings resulting in them sending money when they otherwise wouldnt have, then bless them for doing so, and bless CRUK for making the advert that made them do so.
Lastly, to all who featured in the advert and the millions of other brave cancer sufferers around the world, my thoughts and prayers are with you all, REMAIN STRONG, and rest at night knowing there are millions of us out there trying/fighting/running/making adverts, and doing what ever we can to keep the funding coming,..

I’d just like thank to Cancer Research for …

– the opportunity to be in this campaign.
– for helping to develop the tests that stop my cancer from becoming terminal – SMEAR!!!!
– for the information and guidance that helped me keep my head together so could I tell my family and friends I had cancer and take them with me on my treatment and recovery
– to keep my Grandad alive for 10 years, so that when this disease took him, he could see I’d survived
– So that his son, didn’t lose a daugther as well as a father

£2 to help continue that emotional, factual and scientific support, now that’s not so offensive now is it?

To everyone else in this campaign, I’m proud to be associated with all of you as well as CRUK.

Hi.
I’ve recently lost my very dear Nan to cancer. It was diagnosed at Stage 4 (terminal) and 8 days later she passed away.
How do you people become involved in being in the CRUK adverts & campaigns?
I would absolutely love to get involved and help towards preventing other families go through what we are.

i got the shock of my life when watching this advert as i recognised someone in the video and finally stopped being so cynical about these charity adverts; i normally think the ‘patients’ are actors. But now i don’t and now i am donating

I was so honoured to be asked to take part in this campaign, I still get teary when I see it. If it means that people will donate just a couple of pounds a month helping to fund the RESEARCH into cancer, the causes and the cure, I’d do it again.

How can anyone have a negative view on the ad?????!

I feel like I’m going to just be repeating what others above me have said.

But hey, we’re all entitled to our opinions.

It has been a number of years that I went to visit my mother in hospital, and to hear her say, “Gerald, I have cancer and there is nothing they can do.”
In more recent times, my wife was recalled following routine scanning at one of the mobile facilities. I had started a new job that day and could not be with her. I was not there to support her when the hospital said, “You have cancer.” My wife has been succesfully treated and although we knowe there is no such thing as “In the clear” we both lead a full and normal life. The advert brings back too many memories, but does get the message across tactfully. Supporting CRUK is well worth the effort. Who knows when we made need help in the future?

The advert made me cry. Our precious grandson is being treated for cancer alongside beautiful Eden who is featured in this advert. Two innocent and brave young children struck down with this terrible disease. The amazing work of Cancer Research UK continues to give us hope for Eden and Harley and everyone of us in the future that cancer will touch. It must encourage people to donate, these are very real cancer sufferers sharing an experience we hope will never happen to us.

Interesting points of view and being a democratic society we are all entitled to voice our own opinions.

The advert is but a mere snap shot of being diagnosed with cancer, told by those who have experienced it.
FACT.
It is a simple statement of truth, in that whilst CRUK has aided much research in drug development, thus helped reduce mortality rates, there is still work to be done.
FACT.
Research can also extend to looking at genetics and external factors and contributors to cancers, which long term can help reduce diagnosis rates.
FACT.
I took part in this campaign to raise awareness of cancer for a number of reasons. In the hope that changes in lifestyle choices reduces the risk of cancer in people, individuals are encouraged to talk about symptoms and get medically checked over and that people continue to aid research which ultimately could save a humans life.
As a volunteer it was MY CHOICE and my democratic right to take part to raise funds for CRUK.
FACT.

Difficult to know how to add something constructive when I am so baffled and bewildered by the thoughlessness and insensitivity on show in this discussion! I for one, a cancer patient, who owes her continued survival in part to the work done by organisations such as CRUK, would like to say that I thank my lucky stars that despite there being people in the world who feel no shame at expressing such mindless opinions as those exhibited by Mr Ward, there are countless more people out there who inspire, care, support and work tirelessly to make the lives of people affected by cancer less awful than they might otherwise be. As long as the voices of those people remain loud and rise up above the voices of people who use emotive issues to try and make themselves sound “clever” (and who usually fail miserably), we should remain positive and thankful. Don’t fuel this idiot’s fire any further – he will begin to think people actually care about what he thinks, when the truth is that we have more important things to care about.

Chris Ward: Seriously, how on earth could you convey the level of detail you seem to want in a TV ad lasting seconds?

I am currently 2 years in remission from Stage 3b rectal cancer, I won’t bore you with the permanent scars, disabilities and side effects of the drugs, radiation and surgery I’m stuck with in exchange for my life, I’m just grateful I have the chance to even type this.

I have always stuck to a few charities which have greatly affected my life. Child abuse, cancer and mental illness are the three I donate to as and when I can afford. No we can’t completely wipe any of these things out, they are part of life, but I have received counselling, information, support and advice on all these subjects over the years from charities, which are funded by people like me – so I like to give something back. If you don’t, then leave it to those who do.

If you want more detailed information about the way drug companies work and the goverment, NICE etc – then go about it in a more mature way than posting where it will undoubtedly cause offence, upset and anger at your thoughtless and out of context comments.

When you are faced with knowing you might die a very painful, humiliating death from something like rectal cancer all you want to know is – can you slow it down/get rid of it/make it go away? You won’t give a monkey’s left about seeing the profit and loss statements of CRUK will you?

This is the first advert that has really choked me since I got ill nearly 3 years ago, partly because a fellow cancer patient, and now friend is in it. It’s simple, it’s to the point. Minimum – £2 a month. Poor economy or not, some people out there who watch TV still earn substantial amounts of money and can donate £2 or more. If nothing else, it brings the subject of cancer into our homes and our conversations – knowledge is power (of prevention/minimise risks) after all.

Lastly I wish people would realise there are hundreds of different cancers – the whole point behind cancer research is there is not ONE SINGLE CURE – only by understanding each different type of cancer and the sub types, how different peoples’ genetic make up alters the reaction to each of these…..THEN we can start finding SOME CURES.

Oh dear Mr Ward, what a sad man you are! Your comments are your opinion of course.
The consolation for me, diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, is that the majority of the great British public are kind and caring and do want to help. Ever seen the Race for Life? I would suggest that you go along and take a look at all the thousands of women running to raise money for Cancer Research. Emotional blackmail? – if thats what it takes I’m all for it!!

Cancer Research UK has been leading research into cancer treatments since the 1960’s when it was set up in Bradford to fund chemotherapy which was being experimented with there. One of the doctors who treated me was trained by the professor who started it all. They deserve every penny they can get. If the ad makes people shell out, then all the better.

Steve, a cancer survivor

And before you start on me my boy has cancer.
Will we ever find a cure? I doubt it to be honest, the best thing we can do is prevent it in the first place & until then reguarly screen everyone & everything for it to catch it as early as possible.
Some of it is us too, there are families with a strong history of cancer that still have lots of children that will be more likely to develop cancer, for me that isn’t very intelligent. My boy has lymphoma, we live in an area where lots of crop spraying is done, I would like some scientific tests to show that either crop spraying is totally safe or not, area’s like that need clearing up too, so many factors that can cause or trigger cancer so lets rule them out.

I’m a bit with Mr Ward on this, the new ad is just another rendition of ‘what will Tommy eat tonight, the back of his fathers hand!!’ ‘This girl will starve to death today unless you give £2 a month!’ People suffering from cancer or actors playing that part should not under any circumstances be used to generate revenue, I doubt there is enough money in the world to rescue every child from abuse, feed every single human or find a cure for cancer, I’d like to see one central organisation getting all funding available to find a cure, which after about 50 years we are no closer to finding. It is a hard one but hitting people where it hurts, as in their heart, is not the answer.

I would like to say to Mr Chris Ward, that I sincerely hope that you are never diagnosed with cancer! I have been living with breast cancer since 2001 and am 41 years of age with two beautiful children and a wonderful husband. The prospect of leaving my children without a mother and my husband without a wife fills me with dread. I have lost too many friends to cancer and without the work of Cancer Research and advetisements like this, many of the general public would remain uneducated as to the terrible impact that families experience following a cancer diagnosis. Everybody featured in the advert has demonstrated tremendous courage and bravery in the face of adversity and I suggest Mr Ward that you write to yuor local MP to express such views not a site such as this. Thank goodness that the people in my life have been so supportive of me and Cancer Research.

You Mr. Ward are a disgrace, whether or not you realise that the people in the advert actually are suffering or have suffered from cancer is immaterial.

I am ashamed to call myself a human if people like you can make argumements like saving lives into a political statement.

Unfortunately we live in a democratic society and you are allowed to have your say. I just wish you would go and do it somewhere else and not on sites like this where normal people are trying to make a difference to people who are suffering and that includes their families taking comfort from knowing that there are people and organisations like Cancer Research Uk who are there to support them.

considering all the fruits of the reserch that you fund gets sold for a proffit to a NHS system that can’t aford most treatments. i think the advert is nothing more than an half-assed attempt at emotional blackmail.

a better advert would be to give exact deatails of what the charity has actuly done for the benifit of everyone rather than the profit margins of the companys that sue poor countrys that prouduce the same drugs at a 1000th of the cost. – the main problem, of course, would be that you would actuly have to do something that you could put in the ad.

:?)

very emotive advert

A brilliant advery – so moving. I cried my eyes out.

Please donate. I have had amazing care and am grateful every moment for that.

My special friend Alisica is in the advert. I Love her very much and glad she is better.

Spot on. Having to burden your loved ones with your fight is so hard. But, thanks to Cancer Research helping to provide the weapons and support, it’s a fight many, many of us win.

My Sister is Fiona Crompton and she took part in this, and I just want to put it on record that she makes me so proud to be her brother, the courage and determination she shows to fight this on a daily basis is an inspiration to me and I just want to say that I love you.

It was a privilage to be part of this campaign and like Steve even thought I knew the script I too was moved to tears.I did it In memory of my wonderful dad and my friend Maureen.please donate and change peoples lives.I don’t want my kids to grow up without me.
x

A true portrayal of how cancer does not discriminate. Thanks to CRUK I am here to see the adverts
x

I eagerly agreed to take part in this advert and even though I knew the script, watching this moved me to tears. Support Cancer Research UK they work tirelessly to beat this hideous disease and they will be there where and if you need them.