RTÉ insists on editing flushing toilet sound from cancer advert

THE IRISH Cancer Society was forced to edit the sound of a flushing toilet out of a radio advert highlighting the symptoms of bowel cancer after RTÉ said it could not air the original as it was intrusive and distasteful.

The initial advert, promoting April as the society’s Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, was supposed to be based in a bathroom and featured the sound of a flushing toilet and a man and a woman speaking about bowel cancer.

The campaign says 55 per cent of Irish people who are diagnosed with bowel cancer are diagnosed when it is at an advanced stage and more difficult to treat.

It said one factor regarding delayed diagnosis was that people were too embarrassed to discuss their symptoms.

A total of 966 people died of the disease here in 2008.

In the advert, the man asks “Do you come here often?” and the toilet flushes. The question is then repeated, and the toilet flushes again.

The woman then says: “One sign of bowel cancer is a change in your normal bowel habits, including diarrhoea, constipation, blood, or discomfort lasting more than a month.”

The advert is part of a €50,000 radio advertising campaign being run by the society, of which €19,000 will go to RTÉ.

A spokeswoman for the society said 4fm, Newstalk and a number of regional radio stations were happy to run the original advert, but RTÉ Radio 1 and Lyric FM would only air the edited version.

“RTÉ did eventually accept a different version of the advert without the toilet sound – which is essentially a straightforward factual health announcement – but they had to be persuaded to broadcast even this version.”

RTÉ said it felt that toilet flushing sound effects were an unnecessary intrusion in the piece, which could be perceived by listeners as either a trivialisation of a serious matter, or distasteful.

“It was also felt that the sound effects would distract the listener from the core message, and that better practice would be observed by a straightforward public service message,” a spokesman for RTÉ said.

“RTÉ Radio is supportive of the Irish Cancer Society and its objectives.”

The Irish Cancer Society said its helpline had received 425 calls from people concerned or affected by bowel cancer since the campaign began.

“It is hard to know how many of these were a result of the ad, with or without the sound effects, but we felt it had a bigger impact with the sound,” a spokeswoman said.