The worst cervical cancer campaign ever...

[PizzazzRoxyStorma]

...well isn't this one special?

https://x.com/northwestcancer/status/1724378139059503400?s=46&t=FvzNePXGikWIJeOA86F8cg

Apparently it was written by a woman, or at least the team was headed by a woman. I always want to ask women in these positions what the hell they were thinking.

The 'Mostly' in the 'Mostly affects' sentence is referring to the age group - so it's mostly found in women under 45. But it's so badly written it's not surprising that we are misunderstanding it.

All ad agencies use market research. I have absolutely no idea what questions were asked in the market research for this bollocks.

Just to add, I've never had a speculum used on my legs.

Why would someone expressing an opinion different to yours make you feel shamed? The only people attempting to shame on this thread are the ones who start sneering "cool girls" every time someone expresses an opinion counter to their own
Thanks, I agree, I didn't get where the shamed bit came from either as I hadn't meant to do that, just stating my experience.
It doesn't make me a cool girl (whatever the hell that is) if I as a woman share my experience.
We're all different and we all need to feel spoken to in situations like this

I don’t think you understood my point at all
So what was your point then?

Yes, yes yes! This is what I explain to my dd about going for medical appointments, HCPs see a lot of bodies, all types of bodies, every day.

You need to be on the marketing team! This is a million times more likely to be effective than that awful awful awful “campaign”.

As @Helleofabore said. We already know that when polled half of women or more in the UK did not not know they had a cervix

there is a big issue of women in greater Manchester not getting smear tests. A tasteless advert with drunken people in front of womens legs is not going to change this

women need to be targeted differently for this campaign

And as I pointed out up thread, when I checked the same organisations campaign about prostate and testicular cancers there was unambiguous language used, always the word men, not people. If campaigns aimed at mens health use clear language you have to wonder what the forces are that are denying the same transparency to campaigns about womens health.

Utterly nauseating.

This advert is especially revolting, but as PP said, if they want to improve take up they should offer home vaginal swab HPV tests for women for whom cervical screening at a clinic is unsuitable. Those of us in this situation are not going to respond to this or even a better ad campaign - what we need are the right services.

The NHS London pilot of home testing wrapped up almost 2 years ago but isn’t being rolled out.

Meanwhile those of us who can’t go in for screening are left buying the HPV test privately from Superdrug.

This is a great idea. Kind of a women helping women, supportive idea. The lovely and diverse women who I've met with a speculum over the years were very reassuring. The disembodied legs not really. Smacks of the headless women advertising films.

And a little bio, "I got into healthcare to support women and prevent needless deaths. I have two kids and a cat. I like fell walking." Really humanise healthcare professionals. And healthcare.

And addressing the concerns. Embarrassment, worry about a male HCP being present, pain, abuse, all the other actual concerns.

This is what it reminds me of'...

www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/42cae8ac-5ca6-4672-93b3-d3235f0f384a

Here’s an update (June 2023) from the UK National Screening committee about self sampling. The studies haven’t quite yet finished, rather than it not being rolled out.
https://nationalscreening.blog.gov.uk/2023/06/21/hpvalidate-cervical-screening-self-sampling-study-nears-completion/

they still dont seem to get the message that its painful for some of us. Or maybe they are wilfully ignoring this fact and insisting its embarrassment because then they would have to do something about it.

No it doesn't. Separating "women" and "people with cervixes" implies those care separate groups and not, in fact, one and the same. Consequently, "women" in this sentence doesn't mean actual women but people - of whatever sex - with ladyfeels. Thus excluding gender non-conforming women and including a number of males. It's garbage language. Truly inclusive language would speak of women as a sex, with a footnote or asterix saying "rhe word 'woman' as used here includes a, b, c."

they still dont seem to get the message that its painful for some of us
Yes, think that needs to be addressed, it's getting those voices on board that needs to happen

‘Mostly affects women and people with cervixes’…

How would people who don’t have cervixes get cervical cancer? The wording is ludicrous

Yes, the wording is ludicrous - not because it refers to women and people with cervixes (although women/female should be sufficient) BUT because it says “mostly”.

Cervical cancer ONLY affects women/transmen as they are biologically female.

And if it shocks and upsets women who find it sexually coercive? How is it that on a thread full of women explaining why they find this advert upsetting, you thought it was appropriate to make a comment about men being upset? Are you so blind to women's existence that you can't see them posting? The world is 50% female. Focus on what women are saying about their experiences occasionally.

I'm also not sure why you have this idea that men only tell women not to have sex, to the point that you read instructions to open one's legs as an instruction issued by a woman. In my experience of sexual harassment since puberty, misogynistic men and boys pressure women to have sex with them. Starting from 13-14, I was being asked if I was "frigid" for turning boys' sexual demands down.

Sure, misogynistic men shame women for having sex with other men, but that's not because misogynists don't have sexual expectations of women.

Dinobun1 from North West, England, replied on the Twitter/X thread
“Here’s a poster from just 2021. You could learn a lot.”

Much better. (Click on the pictures to see the whole thing)

I wonder if Dinobun1 is on MN?

Well done, Public Health South Tees.

It’s OK, if the reason for non attendance is embarrassment. Which it often isn’t.

1 in 3 people? Well, presumably no men do so that buggers the stats doesn't it!

The grammar is absolutely awful! Who wrote this? Who signed it off? Not even the printer noticed?!!!! Should be a comma before 'yet'. There's also a full stop missing.

Add to that the word woman has been removed...and the crass message that women should open their legs..

It is absolutely the worst thing I have seen for a long time. And I sat through the new Sex and the City remake...

Agreed with this.

Well i haven't been for a smear test for 4 years as I find it painful, and this absolutely doesn't not reassure me. I am the target audience.

Raising awareness is not the same as reassurance. I know people get cervical cancer, I'm not thick. This advert should calmly explain that it won't hurt. Even though it fucking does for me..

Wonder who came up with this

It’s very bad

That the terrible, unclear wording muddies the waters and confuses people.

It’s not obvious that the mostly appears to an age range. The primary reason for that is the insertion of ‘and people with a cervix’ in the middle of it.

The word women should just be able to refer to female adults. Because everything else is less clear and that’s far more dangerous than the hurt feelings of a small group of people upset by biology.

Inclusive means many things. In this case, pandering to the TRA agenda excludes orders of magnitude more people than it includes.

'Getting people talking' and 'raising awareness' in this way isn't the same as winning over your targeted audience and allaying their fears to the degree that they actually have a smear test. Reassuring traumatised women, women who have found the test painful or getting the message to women who have English as an additional language is the key here.

This campaign just has completely the wrong feeling and presentation. It isn't reassuring! It doesn't have clear language!