The early stages of Alzheimer’s disease are very hard to detect. They can be as simple as misusing a word or losing your train of thought. Which means that when we encounter them in real life, they can still be overlooked.

So in order to raise awareness for these early warning signs, we partnered with two of Canada’s most watched TV shows to create The Alzheimer’s Slip Up. During Alzheimer’s Awareness Week we had Canadian broadcasters “slip up” live on the air and then draw attention to it, raising awareness for the early warning signs of the disease.

During Entertainment Tonight and That’s Hockey, two of Canada’s most-watched programs, the hosts would make a small slip up, the kind viewers would ignore if they happened in casual conversation. Then, the host would stop the broadcast and draw attention to the mistake. They would let viewers know that a slip up as simple as that, which they may have missed, could in fact be an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease. Then, the hosts would drive viewers to the Alzheimer’s Society website where they could learn more about how to detect all of the early warning signs.

With zero media dollars we managed to educate nearly 1 million Canadians, just by slipping up. Unfortunately, the Alzheimer Society of Canada does not release their site traffic information.