PSAs tread a fine line. In order to get viewers to hear an important message, the work must grab their attention. But if a public service spot is too shockingly graphic in its depiction of consequences, it runs the risk of turning off viewers-or of being denied airtime altogether.
The latter may be the fate of different versions of a PSA sponsored by the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) created by Minneapolis-based Campbell Mithun Esty (CME) and directed by Amy Hill & Chris Riess, a.k.a. Hill & Riess, of Tony K., Santa Monica and London. The basic ad-which shows a skin cancer victim removing his prosthetic nose-has been denied airtime by ABC, NBC and CBS. It now threatens to fulfill SHOOT’s assessment as a candidate for "The Best Work You May Never See" (SHOOT, 4/9, p.15). As of press time, the PSAs have been shipped to 27 cable stations and 900 local affiliate stations around the country.
"Nose/Prevention" features 64-year-old entertainment attorney Don Biederman, whose story is a stark warning about the dangers of sun overexposure. He appears on-screen, and narrates in voiceover, talking about his days as a youthful sun worshipper; these segments are intercut with home movie style footage that is meant to represent his younger days. The ad’s happy tone ends abruptly when Biederman, shown in profile, removes his prosthetic nose that hides his missing nose and left cheek-exposing a red scabbed hole in the center of his face. The ad dissolves to a series of supered messages: "Prevent skin cancer" "Cover up" and "Use Sunscreen," followed by the 1-800 number for the AAD.
Startling? Yes. Too gross to handle? Yes-at least, according to ABC, whose spokesperson Susan Sewell related the network rejected :30 versions of "Nose/Protection" and another spot "Nose/Detection." (The latter has different supered copy, urging viewers: "Watch for skin cancer," "Examine your skin regularly" and "See your dermatologist.")
"[ABC’s broadcast standards and practices division] felt the visuals were just too much," said Sewell. "They were too graphic and not appropriate for a television audience. We have run ads for them in the past, but against [visuals] that weren’t quite so graphic as these two particular spots."
CME chief creative officer Jim White disagrees that the visuals are inappropriate. Noting that the images are not nearly as shocking and disturbing as the broadcast news
coverage of the Littleton shooting tragedy, White insists that the only way to get people to change is to hit them hard and shake them up-particularly since our culture propagates the images of the deep, dark Hawaiian Tropic tan as healthy and desirable.
Noting that everyone on the crew of the shoot scheduled a dermatologist appointment, White added, "You have to go that powerful to get people to get off their butts and [change their view] that ‘That doesn’t apply to me.’ I think we’ve done some good [AAD] work in the past, but this takes it to another level and makes it so that you can’t ignore it. I don’t think you can have some warm, fuzzy, feel-good thing [because] people will dismiss it and say, ‘That’ll happen when I’m really old and don’t care what I look like anyway.’ "
CME account executive Faye Bliese added the work got an encouraging response from the focus groups who were presented with the visuals depicted on storyboards. Said Bliese, "[We asked], ‘If we took off someone’s nose on television, would this be gross … turn you off … make you not want to go to a doctor?’ And 99.9 percent of the people we talked to said ‘Absolutely not’ and said they were going home right then to put sunscreen on their kids. Although it’s very startling, it was very powerful and positive. People said they probably wouldn’t have listened to [the message] otherwise."
NBC manager of community relations Deborah Barry related that in order for the network to run PSAs, it requires that the sponsoring organization have non-profit status (which AAD does). Additionally that organization must have been evaluated by and have met the standards of the Council of Better Business Bureaus-a distinction the AAD doesn’t have, according to Barry.
There’s also some question whether NBC received the actual PSAs for review. CME spokesperson Dennis Smith contended the agency did forward the PSAs to NBC. "When we followed up with her [Barry], she said they had not reviewed them yet … that it wasn’t a priority … that they would get back to us. When they did, they said AAD did not meet their general guidelines." But Barry told SHOOT that CME hadn’t submitted a screening tape of the PSAs to NBC.
CME acknowledged that it didn’t submit the work to CBS because that network’s guidelines are similar to NBC’s. But regardless of the reason the PSAs aren’t running on the networks, White thinks it’s regrettable. "You’ll see all the spots advertising suntan lotions and the beautiful tan," said White, "and no one’s taken responsibility for talking about the dark side."
