Across England, people aged 60-74 are sent NHS bowel cancer screening kits directly to their homes. Why? Because bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK, but detecting cancer at the earliest stage makes it up to 9 times more likely to be treated successfully.

However, 1.5million tests a year aren’t returned. That’s 1.5million life-saving chances missed.

The cause? Pure human nature. The kit involves a poo sample, an unpleasant prospect, and so the kit gets placed in that ‘drawer-of-doom’, with the other things they swear they’ll get around to doing…

To overcome this inertia, we did two things:

1. Embraced the oddness with optimism - “your poo could save your life” encouraging enthusiasm towards the test.

2. Gave practical advice by suggesting a better place for the kit than the drawer-of-doom, with the endline: “put it by the loo, don’t put it off”.

Your next poo could save your life.

To bring this thought to life we combined three improbable things. Rhythmic gymnastics, loo roll and Sammy Davis Jr. Of course!

We see our protagonist wake early in the morning. As he goes downstairs to fetch a loo roll, he breaks into glorious dance. With the loo roll trailing gracefully behind him, he leaps and jumps through the house, from the lounge to the dining room and eventually out into the garden where his extraordinary display raises a neighbour’s eyebrow. With the uplifting lyrics, “I want to live not merely survive...” the sequence becomes a joyous celebration of living.

Finally, we see the bathroom door shut behind him and a series of quick cuts shows the ease with which the bowel cancer screening test can be completed. Our audience is reminded to put the kit by the loo, and not put it off.

With the campaign running until March 2023, we’re yet to see the impact on test return data but there are early indicators which are very promising.

Please refer to the confidential information section for further impact.