Call for a Checkup!
From the Publicity Staff Promoting Awareness through the Media
Shinichiro Murakami
Deputy Section Manager,
Publicity and Investor Relations Dept.,
Corporate Planning Div.,
Olympus Corporation
We are trying to develop various ideas to help the general public to understand the importance of medical checks by providing our campaign information through the media, and by asking doctors to explain colorectal cancer in our magazines.
From One Who Provides Information to Medical Staff
Kensuke Asahi
Deputy Section Manager,
Endoscope Sales Promotion Group,
Sales Marketing Dept., Marketing & Planning Div.,
Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
We have just started-the real thing is yet to come! We must work with many people to create a society where colorectal cancer screening is a common thing. Then we will be able to reduce the number of people who lose their lives to colorectal cancer.
From the Colonoscopes Development Planning Staff
Yoshihiro Iida
Group Leader/Section Manager
New Business Development
Project Planning Group, R&D Div. 1,
Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
Some of the development members joined us of their own free will, despite their busy schedules. We have a strong sense of social responsibility, and I think this corporate culture is being continuously handed down from our seniors.
From the Advertising Staff Engaged in Commercial Production
Nobuhiro Nakajima
Group Leader, Medical Group,
Business Advertisement Dept.,
Business Support Div.,
Olympus Corporation
It was at the end of last November when the idea to use music and movement first took shape. We fast-tracked our ideas until the campaign began in February. We are now thinking of expanding our colorectal cancer campaigns in various foreign countries.
"Is there anything we, the manufacturer of digestive endoscopes used for medical checks of the stomach and colorectal, can do?"
An in-house multidisciplinary project comprising 14 to 15 members was set up in the summer of 2006, and when the topic was narrowed down to colorectal cancer, what the members talked of was a very simple thing, "First disclose the facts and then promote medical checks." Some cancers can be healed quite easily, and colorectal cancer is one of them. It can be almost completely prevented by a regular endoscopic check of the colorectal. Yet only a small number of people take such a check. Before even going for such a medical checkup, we can detect it with a very simple "stool test." So why not just call for a checkup!
The campaign film was first shown in February 2007, mainly in the Tokyo metropolitan area and then toured major cities throughout the country in March. The campaign received a lot of feedback as it was covered by TV information programs and the media. Various comments were gathered from the general public: "I learned about the present situation regarding colorectal cancer through the campaign and have decided to have a checkup every year from now on." "Although the phrase 'cancer awareness' sounds heavy and dark, your campaign sounded very natural and certainly attracted me." A doctor said to a visiting Olympus employee, "I saw the film. You started a good activity."
We also received various inquiries asking for permission to play the campaign song in patients' waiting rooms or to put up the campaign poster. We have no intention to restrict this activity to Olympus. The BRAVE CIRCLE colorectal cancer elimination campaign indicates "the bravery to face colorectal cancer and the intention to expand this initiative." This is the wish that members want to realize through the campaign. Our target is to spread awareness to wider social activities with the help of more organizations, medical institutes, corporations, and individuals.
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Campaign Abroad
It is not only in Japan that the colorectal cancer awareness campaign is being conducted. Olympus America joined the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT) in 1998 and initiated efforts to communicate the importance and necessity of colorectal cancer screening.
Their major activities include contributions to the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA), support of the activities of the Cancer Research and Prevention Fund (CRPF), and sponsoring the Colorectal Club, which was established by Molly McMaster, an American who overcame colorectal cancer at the age of 27. This club, in cooperation with OAI, promotes the colorectal cancer prevention education tour in which those who have overcome colorectal cancer promote medical checks and screening for people under 50. The Colossal Colorectal used for this tour is a big model of a colorectal measuring 40 feet long and 4 feet high. People can walk inside the model and see healthy colorectal tissue and diseased tissue. Advertising and PR activities calling for cancer screening are also being conducted in Canada, the Czech Republic, and South Korea.
Symbol mark of the colorectal cancer prevention campaign
the colorectal model "Colossal Colorectal" used for the campaign
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