A very strange TV advertisement is currently being aired showing a throbbing human heart in all its rather slippery looking glory. The ad is from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and its aim – according to their press release – is to grab our attention and raise awareness of the UK’s biggest killer – heart and circulatory disease. Having been put off my dinner by the perky pulsator I guess I can confirm that it does do that.
The ad appeared about the same time as a report from Help the Aged showing that, due to the huge increase in the numbers of us living longer, “the UK’s ageing population is set to cause a huge rise in the number of older people living with long-term illnesses (heart disease, osteoporosis and dementia)”. This will undoubtedly, as they predict, stretch the NHS to breaking point.
Although they maintain that more research is needed into causes and cures, the message has got to be that we all must individually do more now. Surely by now we are all aware that smoking, poor diet, excess weight and lack of exercise will almost certainly affect our health and lead to heart and circulatory problems. Already there’s plenty that the medical profession can do to fix such problems, the message for everyone – from the cradle onwards – has got to be prevention, prevention, prevention.
Perhaps if we were able to have a look at our hearts and other inner organs and found that they looked nowhere near as bright and bouncy as the BHF model we might be motivated to take action. A similar series of ads some time ago showing what smokers’ lungs actually looked like were pretty powerful and effective.
