WINNER OF THE AD CLUB OF BOSTON’S ROSOFF AWARD
One out of three people have high blood pressure and many don’t know it. Unless it’s treated, high blood pressure can lead to heart attack, stroke and even death. That’s why it’s called “the silent killer”. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health commissionedGEOVISION to create a campaign to encourage people to get screened for high blood pressure, and to control it if diagnosed.

After extensive worldwide research of high blood pressure campaigns we proposed a non-conventional approach: to use very high quality hand-drawn animation to illustrate two scenarios. In the first one, for people who don’t know their blood pressure (mostly men since women usually get more regular check-ups), an animated question mark encourages them to use kiosks like those found in drugstores. The second one targets people who have already been diagnosed and are on medications but are not taking them regularly. A cell phone notifies the user to take the meds (research has shown high cell phone usage among the target audience so the spot encourages the use of cell phones as alarms). Ominous clouds show the health risks that threaten those with high blood pressure.

Results

• The TV campaign in English, Spanish and Portuguese made its debut in March 2012. Reactions to date have been very positive from all target audiences. Campaign effectiveness will be evaluated through pre and post campaign phone and Internet surveys.