Prostate Cancer: Are You At Risk?: National Campaign

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded State of the Art Inc. through the Small Business Innovation Research grant program to create a video and print piece for men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. This piece was entitled “Take Charge: For Men Newly Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.” With the supplemental funding from NCI, State the Art developed a general audience program for broadcast.

The result was “Prostate Cancer: Are You at Risk?” This program includes additional interviews with Senator Bob Dole and Surgeon General David Satcher and is hosted by Colin Powell. The initial broadcast in 1998 was focused on Prostate Cancer Awareness Week. National Association of Broadcasters sponsored a satellite feed of the show to over 1,100 stations -- CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, UPN. They supported the project by distributing community guides on prostate cancer. They sponsored a major press event on Capitol Hill, which included congressional leaders -- Republican and Democrat, Senate and House. State of the Art developed and satellite fed a week’s worth of news programming inserts so local news channels could do prostate cancer awareness stories every day of the week. We also did radio promotion and interviews.

In 1999, we re-broadcast the show on PBS stations nationwide for Father’s Day. Promotional underwriters for the program included: Tap Pharmaceuticals and Schering Plough Oncology. These underwriters donated copies of the non-broadcast video to the project partners, including the National Urban League. One pharmaceutical company has continued to buy in bulk to give “Take Charge” to men who are newly diagnosed. We also made a targeted outreach to VA hospitals and support groups.

Promotional underwriters for outreach of the program included: Tap Pharmaceuticals and Schering Plough Oncology. Outreach targeted VA hospitals and support groups.