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Kiwi celebrities face their fears for Blue September

For New Zealanders and folk around the world, this month marks the beginning of Blue September, an initiative launched to raise awareness of prostate cancer. So, to draw attention to the illness the Prostate Cancer Foundation brought aboard a few well-known Kiwis to face their fears for the cause. 

Due to prostate cancer, many men in New Zealand die needlessly because they tend to be more afraid of getting an examination than women.  

To address men’s fears of a check up head on, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Chemistry Interaction enlisted celebrities Mark Hadlow, Monty Betham, Buck Shelford and Jay-Jay Harvey to front up and face a personal fear – whether it be big dogs, heights or spiders.

Prostate Cancer Foundation chief executive Graeme Woodside says prostate cancer is the most common cancer amongst New Zealand men.

“Every year, 3,000 fathers, sons and brothers are diagnosed and 600 die needlessly because they’re scared of getting a prostate check, when all it takes is a simple blood test to start the testing process.”

Chemistry Interaction Creative Director Pat Murphy says: “Our idea was to get these well-known faces to face their fear and then challenge all of New Zealand to do the same in support of Blue September. Our insight was that everybody finds something scary, but getting a prostate check shouldn’t be one of them.”

Blue September also has the support of primary sponsor PlaceMakers as well as brands such as Mazda NZ, Farmers, Coffee Club and Corey’s Electrical who have been raising awareness through their social media channels. 

Chemistry Interaction Director Mike Larmer says rather than a conventional brand awareness campaign, it wanted to create mass engagement, uniting all of the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s brand ambassadors to help capture the nation’s imagination and provide fun ways for everyone to get involved in this year’s Blue September drive.

“We need to raise donations to fund the work supporting families and pioneering research as well as addressing the key issue that guys are scared of getting a check up – and that’s killing too many Kiwi men.”

Credits:

Director: Petra Cibilich

Production: Fish and Clips

Producer: Liz Garneau

Photographer: Stephen Langdon

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