PR chief warns on MMR ad campaign

Claire Cozens
Media

Monday February 11, 2002

A planned government advertising campaign for the controversial MMR vaccine is likely to backfire, a leading PR executive has warned.

Roger Hayward, the chairman of the public relations standards council, said the public was too clever to believe an advertising campaign when the government has been unable to persuade journalists the vaccine is safe.

"The public are very canny and they know that anyone who is advertising on an issue as significant as this is really admitting 'I'm sorry, we can't convince the journalists, so we are going over their heads to try to reach you directly'," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The government has so far failed to quell the controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine and sources say it is furious with some of the coverage.

"Tony Blair should simply announce he is going to look into the cases of those who have developed autism following their MMR jabs. But he won't because it would be seen as a political u-turn," said Mr Hayward.

"But he has responsiblity for public health and that should come before party politics," said one journalist who has incurred the wrath of the health departments over coverage of the MMR controversy.

Mr Hayward added: "That simply won't work. There is a lot of evidence that advertising used in situations like this is actually counter-productive and worsens the situation rather than improving it."

It emerged this week that the chief medical officer, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, is preparing for a publicity blitz aimed at rebuilding confidence in MMR.

Sir Liam is expected to take part in TV, radio and press adverts to press the case for MMR.

The advertising agency BMP DDB is understood to be working on the campaign, which could include a public service broadcast shown on all terrestrial TV channels - the first such broadcast since the Aids campaigns of the 1980s.

Take-up of the vaccination has dropped to 84% following media reports of Dr Andrew Wakefield's suggestion of a link between MMR and autism. This is well below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks of measles.

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