The Heart & Stroke Foundation is launching its first integrated marketing campaign targeting South Asians. The campaign, created by Toronto-based Monsoon Communications, is adapted from the current mainstream campaign, “Make Health Last,” which was developed by Lowe Roche.
In Lowe Roche’s campaign, “Make Health Last” juxtaposes images of fitness and vitality with those of sickness and decline. The ads, which are targeted at baby boomers, ask Canadians what the last 10 years of their lives will look like while urging them to make lifestyle choices that will influence their health outcome.
The Monsoon campaign, which targets South Asians between 40 and 55 uses the same premise with a few notable exceptions: the key message highlights the fact that South Asians are three to five times more likely to suffer from heart disease and stroke than other visible minorities or Caucasians. They’re also more likely to be afflicted by heart disease and stroke at a much earlier age.
“Our aim is to reach the South Asian community where they are at and promote some behavioural and attitudinal changes to stop or reduce the numbers for heart disease and stroke,” said Firdaus Ali, health promotion specialist at Heart & Stroke Foundation.
The higher incidence of heart disease and stroke among South Asians is due to dietary and lifestyle habits, said Sachi Mukerji, president and creative director of Monsoon, which was named Heart & Stroke Foundation’s multicultural agency of record following a review earlier this year.
“[South Asians] are very driven, very career minded, they work very hard and their own health comes last,” he said. “They’re not out there jogging, bicycling or going to a fitness centre and cutting down on carbs, oils and fats…. So it’s inevitable that this is going to hit them hard.”
Another key difference in Monsoon’s campaign is based on the insight that the “last 10 years” messaging would be irrelevant to South Asians, said Mukerji. “There is a certain fatalistic approach that we take to the last few years of our lives. It’s inevitable that we’ll be ill, it’s inevitable that we’ll be in rehab and that we’ll be undergoing treatment. South Asians have a tendency to say ‘what’s going to be will be. This is my fate.’ It’s more important for South Asians to answer the question, ‘how do you want to spent the rest of your life.’”
The campaign, which includes TV, print and radio ads, will launch May 16 in the Greater Toronto Area. TV spots will run on networks such as Omni and Asian Television Network (ATN), while print ads will run in various South Asian newspapers. The Heart & Stroke Foundation hopes to expand the campaign to other regions.
“I think this is campaign is really the starting point,” said Ali. “We hope this campaign is ageless: we don’t want it to be restricted just for the months of May and June. We hope the campaign will have a wider reach and [we’d like] to continue it at least until the end of the year.”
