Diabetes UK's 'prevention' ad campaign

[Northerner]

I think the current Diabetes awareness campaign backed by Tesco is a positive step in the right direction. Too many of us are in denial about how seriously this disease can impact not only us but also our loved ones. It is a serious and life threatening disease if not managed and can result in an early death. Even diabetics themselves can be dismissive about the condition, and consensus amongst the public is that diabeties is not a big deal. Well done to Diabetes UK to bring it to the forefront, it is just as lethal if not more than having cancer. The campaign has come too late for me and my family who have experienced a tragic loss of a loved one, aged 45 and diagnosed with diabetes six years ago.

Very sorry to hear about your loss m1974

 

[PattiEvans]

I would LOVE to see Diabetes UK's accounts because I think if any half decent auditor went through them, we would find very little gets spent on actually finding a cure for diabetes, very little gets spent on things that genuinely help people with diabetes, while the lion's share of the cash gets peed up the wall on the marketing team and the printing of pamphlets telling everyone to eat more starchy carbs.

Deus - you can see their accounts. All charities have to be open with their accounts. You will find a .pdf here http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/About%20Us/annual-reports/diabetes-uk-report-financial-statements-2012-signed-0613.pdfThe financial statements start on page 40.

 

[Redkite]

M1974, I'm sorry to hear your sad news.

 

[PattiEvans]

So sorry when I responded to Deus I hadn't seen the message from M1974. My sincere sympathies M. What a very terrible thing to happen.

 

[Northerner]

Diabetes UK have responded to the BMJ's criticism of their awareness campaign:

http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f7025?ijkey=VQ7XfoiaFolap6W&keytype=ref

 

[Naty]

Thanks for posting that Northerner 🙂

 

[DeusXM]

?2m to get 30,000 people to fill out an online assessment?

At ?67 per person they might was well have just paid someone to go door to door with a questionnaire. What a complete waste of charity money that could have been spent on curing diabetes.

Utterly disgraceful.

 

[Northerner]

?2m to get 30,000 people to fill out an online assessment?

At ?67 per person they might was well have just paid someone to go door to door with a questionnaire. What a complete waste of charity money that could have been spent on curing diabetes.

Utterly disgraceful.

Looking at the bigger picture, maybe a lot of those 30,000 people will now have been diagnosed earlier before costly complications take hold? And maybe/probably many more will have been made aware of the potential dangers of diabetes?

 

[DeusXM]

Yes, but I imagine there are far more cost-effective ways to reach such a small number of people. As I said, you could have just sent a bloke with a clipboard door to door and had the same impact.

Diabetes UK themselves say there are probably 850,000 people out there with undiagnosed diabetes. They've just wasted a massive chunk of their budget to reach less than 5% of those people and simultaneously terrify those of us whole do have diabetes.

If I was a tourist board and ran a ?2m bus advertising campaign in London, and just 30,000 people bothered to visit the destination I was promoting, I'd be fired.

 

[Northerner]

It's a lot of money, I agree, but that aside I have no idea what sort of 'return' is expected on advertising campaigns of this nature, and this type of 'product'. 5% may not be a bad response for all I know, and of course that doesn't include the people who may have had their misconceptions challenged or overturned.