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Risqué Poster Campaign “Damaging Local Charity”

Friday 11 May 2007

Northern Ireland’s leading heart charity says it faces the prospect of losing money because it is being blamed for an explicit poster campaign by a London-based rival.


Northern Ireland’s leading heart charity says it faces the prospect of losing money because it is being blamed for an explicit poster campaign by a London-based rival.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has been putting up billboards showing a naked man and a woman wearing a swimsuit embracing on a beach. The message is that sex is good for the heart.

But Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke is receiving daily complaints about the ad, even though the campaign is nothing to do with the charity.

Chief Executive Andrew Dougal said: “It’s ironic that our policy down through the years has been to avoid shocking or frightening people, and here we are taking the flak for the actions of a charity based in London with which we have absolutely no connection. We have had letters and phone calls from people threatening not to give us any more money. In fact, we understand their views entirely. We have never used shock tactics or sexual imagery in our campaigns and never will. Part of the problem, we believe, is that the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has dropped the word ‘British’ from its title in Northern Ireland, so people assume that there’s only one local heart charity.”

This is not the first time this has happened. Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke also received complaints when the BHF ran a series of advertisements showing a skin-coloured belt tightening around a man’s chest to depict heart attack, and a young girl drinking cooking oil from the bottle to indicate fat consumption.

“But”, said Mr Dougal, “this is the highest number of mistaken complaints we have received. It angers our volunteers and the people we care for that we are being viewed in this way when we have always tried to be responsible.

“When the BHF first opened its second hand clothes shops, people assumed that they belonged to us. That was irritating, but it wasn’t in the same league as this latest development.

“We would appeal to the BHF to withdraw these posters – not just because they offend the sensibilities of many local people, but because they are damaging the cause of raising money to combat heart disease.

“We and our supporters are not prudes – but we know where to draw the line when advising people on healthier lifestyles. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging exercise, but these posters are merely designed to shock. I would argue that the shock value obscures the real message, which is that we need to improve our entire lifestyle if we are to avoid cardiovascular disease.”

NI Chest, Heart and Stroke has been caring for the sufferers of chest, heart and stroke illnesses here for 60 years.

Said Mr Dougal: “For more than 50 of those years, we didn’t see very many of the London-based charities. Now that things are back to normal, the danger is that their aggressive entry into the market will damage not just long established local charities, but the very cause they are trying to address.”

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