Huge
budget needed to get jab point over
(Filed: 19/02/2002)
IT'S not a fact that the Government likes to be reminded of, but
these days it is Britain's biggest single advertiser.
Of course, you might think that is inevitable when its reaction
to every difficulty is to open the various departmental piggy banks and spend
millions on explaining itself. Still, all this advertising surely makes
ministers feel as though they're doing something.
That's one conclusion to be drawn from the news that the
Department of Health is considering a TV, press and radio campaign to persuade
parents that the MMR vaccine is safe.
If they are to go ahead, they ought to get on with it. Given the
extent of the debate about MMR, every day they delay makes the task more
difficult. On this basis, they shouldn't stint on the media budgets either.
Blanket coverage of the country is essential and the £3m figure
bandied about is probably the very least necessary. It isn't just parents of
young children who need to be reached but grandparents and opinion formers in
the media - anyone parents will turn to for advice. That necessitates a
broad-brush campaign.
The opposition parties will no doubt claim this is a political
campaign and therefore cannot be funded by the taxpayer. The Government will
respond by saying it is a public health issue. Both are right. MMR is a public
health issue but by its dithering the Government has made it into a political
test as well.
All that will be picked over by Parliament. Meanwhile, the real
issue remains: can advertising persuade increasingly sceptical parents that MMR
is safe? It's unlikely. Advertising is not a blunt instrument. It works best
when it tries to shift attitudes and opinions over time, not when it tries to
reverse them instantaneously.
There are times when, whatever the logic of the case - and it's
hard to see what else the advertising can be based on - the emotional arguments
against are overwhelming. That's why the airlines pulled all their advertising
in the aftermath of September 11. On occasions like these, it's better to stop
the ads and let the debate run its course.
At the moment, the argument is going against MMR. Across the
country first-stage inoculation take-up is below 85pc and in one London health
authority it's just 65pc. Take-up of the critical booster jab is also in
decline, suggesting that parents who may have swallowed their fears before are
now having second thoughts.
According to figures for July to September last year, 73.4pc of
under-fives had the booster, compared with 74.2pc the year before. That's the
measure of the task.
Remember too that the Government spent some £3m last year on
advertising MMR - so, as the figures indicate, the message isn't getting home.
It took the Department of Transport 20 years of often-brilliant advertising to
change public attitudes to drink-driving.
The way the public view of MMR is going, the Department of
Health will have to think similarly long term. Somehow, you can't imagine them
sanctioning that kind of advertising budget for MMR.
· Dominic Mills is editorial director of
Campaign and Marketing. Email: dominic.mills@haynet.com
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12
February 2002[News]: MMR adverts are a waste, say autism groups |
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January 2001[News]: Campaign to persuade parents that the MMR jab is safe |
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