Got the sniffles? Get a tissue

Submitted by Guest on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 10:34

Verdant looks at the communications around the flu epidemic

Andrew Lansley's decision to pull the Flu advertising campaign in the run up to Christmas has caused a huge amount of debate and criticism targeted at the Government who have been accused of putting the nation's health at risk in order to save money.

On the 17th December Senior doctors were "deeply concerned" about the prospect of a major flu crisis this winter because the people who were most at risk were not coming forward for flu jabs, they urged central government to do more raise awareness.

However on the 24th December Andrew Lansley, Health Secretary stated that he did not launch an advertising campaign because he did not think it would make any difference.

Marketers at COI might have begged to differ as they have models which track and demonstrate what impact particular types of campaign can have. With flu rising to epidemic levels, Mr Lansley then appeared to backtrack on the 30th December announcing the relaunch of the “Catch it, Bin it, Kill it” campaign with national press and radio advertisements to remind people to practise good respiratory and hand hygiene.

Unfortunately, it appears to be too little too late with all the major nationals reporting this week that the government's decision not to immunise under 5s will trigger a major flu epidemic as schools re-open. The government's rather lame media response that they will learn from their mistakes will be no consolation to those families whose loved ones are in intensive care, or who have already died. This government is starting to see the consequences of their decision to drastically reduce spending on communications - perhaps it is time for a rethink.

Verdant Consulting