[Kieron]

This is quite amazing....

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007260647,00.html

[Mep]

yes, it is!!!...he was a great comedian.

[krish]

What a marvellous and ingenious campaign, will hopefully raise funds and awareness quite dramatically in the UK, and very admirable of his widow too

An earlier campaign for The Prostate Cancer Charity was quite funny (the Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington radio ad regarding prostate examinations) ...
- www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/news/features/ricky.asp
- www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/media/audio/ricky_web.mp3 (754 KB mp3, right-click & save)

[johntheexpat]

It hopefully will be effective, but three quarters of a million quid? For a 40 second commercial? For charity?

[Singh400]

I believe there was a very good video by Rachel Stevens dealing with the same subject.

You can view that nice video here.

[WibXL]

Funny how a funny advert about a serious subject can get the point across better than a serious one, for me any way.

[Singh400]

The Sun video isn't working for me, anyone got an alternative link?

[unique]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

It hopefully will be effective, but three quarters of a million quid? For a 40 second commercial? For charity?

thats ridiculous. i hope that includes the cost of broadcast and everything else, and not just the price of making the ad, as the cost of broadcasting and everything else will push it up a few more hundred grand. instead of giving money to the charity to go to the cause your money will be paying off the cost of another stupid idea to finance ad execs new cars and weekend coke binges

it might be a fine cause, but it makes a mockery of the charity for them to waste money in this way. do they really think they will bring in more income because of that ad rather than any other ad they could do with another celebrity thats alive and prepared to offer thier services for free?

the ad agencies make so much money at times they can surely offer services for free to charities, and likewise the people involved in creating the ad's and broadcasting and printing them. the amount of money here could go a long way towards research and helping save lives, instead of being wasted on another short time ad campaign

[WibXL]

Originally Posted by unique

the ad agencies make so much money at times they can surely offer services for free to charities, and likewise the people involved in creating the ad's and broadcasting and printing them. the amount of money here could go a long way towards research and helping save lives, instead of being wasted on another short time ad campaign

Watched a bit of ITV this morning and they said that everybody involved donated their time for free including filming etc.

[Sonic67]

Originally Posted by Singh400

The Sun video isn't working for me, anyone got an alternative link?

Put 'Bob Monkhouse cancer' into the BBCs search engine and they have clips of the video there. Link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/new...tm?bw=bb&mp=wm

[unique]

Originally Posted by WibXL

Watched a bit of ITV this morning and they said that everybody involved donated their time for free including filming etc.

so the ad cost the charity nothing, but cost £750k to put together? i think they should have made that clear in the press release as it could put people off from donating if they think their money is just paying for the ad and admin. so much of charity money goes towards admin and paid staff. i know some charities rely on this, but it does bother me when i'm walking in a main street to get the bus home and every day there are umpteen paid charity collectors trying to get money for whatever charity it is. surely they can find volunteers to help them collect? it puts me off giving money when i know the person collecting is being paid to do it

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by unique

thats ridiculous. i hope that includes the cost of broadcast and everything else, and not just the price of making the ad, as the cost of broadcasting and everything else will push it up a few more hundred grand. instead of giving money to the charity to go to the cause your money will be paying off the cost of another stupid idea to finance ad execs new cars and weekend coke binges

it might be a fine cause, but it makes a mockery of the charity for them to waste money in this way. do they really think they will bring in more income because of that ad rather than any other ad they could do with another celebrity thats alive and prepared to offer thier services for free?

I think the idea is to make people aware of prostrate cancer and hopefully make men more aware of the problem and there for save lives. I don’t think the people the charity went to, to make the film is a charity organisation and therefore charge the charity. If the advert works and it save lives it was well worth the money, and the charity doing its job.
Also the point in having Bob Monkhouse present the avert is to bring it home to viewers what it can take away and Bob was well loved by millions and died of prostrate cancer the ad should make people think what it can do.

One thing that the ad brought home to me is how much I miss seeing Bob on the TV, he had to be the sharpest compares on TV, forever on the contestant’s side non of this ridiculing the contestant to get a laugh like a lot of compares do today, always immaculately turned out, and never ever ask him to tell a joke on any subject and catch him out. A great loss.

[WibXL]

Originally Posted by unique

so the ad cost the charity nothing, but cost £750k to put together?

That's what they said in the interview but I was just flicking through so I didn't see it all.

[krish]

Originally Posted by Garrett

One thing that the ad brought home to me is how much I miss seeing Bob on the TV, he had to be the sharpest compares on TV, forever on the contestant’s side non of this ridiculing the contestant to get a laugh like a lot of compares do today, always immaculately turned out, and never ever ask him to tell a joke on any subject and catch him out. A great loss.

Yes, I felt that too , a much missed TV funnyman and a true gent and wit, I could never tire of him, unlike Bruce or Tarby. Its funny, sad, respectful and certainly imho a great campaign for prostate cancer awareness.

[unique]

Originally Posted by Garrett

I think the idea is to make people aware of prostrate cancer and hopefully make men more aware of the problem and there for save lives. I don’t think the people the charity went to, to make the film is a charity organisation and therefore charge the charity. If the advert works and it save lives it was well worth the money, and the charity doing its job.
Also the point in having Bob Monkhouse present the avert is to bring it home to viewers what it can take away and Bob was well loved by millions and died of prostrate cancer the ad should make people think what it can do.

One thing that the ad brought home to me is how much I miss seeing Bob on the TV, he had to be the sharpest compares on TV, forever on the contestant’s side non of this ridiculing the contestant to get a laugh like a lot of compares do today, always immaculately turned out, and never ever ask him to tell a joke on any subject and catch him out. A great loss.

you might be right, but it seems the ad itself has overshadowed the meaning behind it. they showed clips on tv a few times, but the emphasis was on the creation of the ad and the cost of it, rather than what the ad was trying to acheive, or at least after seeing it 2 or 3 times on different news items, it was lost to me, so i would imagine it would be lost on other people also

[JagoPlasma]

i wasnt even aware he had passed on!

i wondered why i hadnt seen him in a while and thought he was making a comeback on tv when i saw this advert.

how did they do it then? it looked very real. is it like that Elvis thing with a bit of extra work to write an audio script

[WibXL]

Originally Posted by unique

you might be right, but it seems the ad itself has overshadowed the meaning behind it. they showed clips on tv a few times, but the emphasis was on the creation of the ad and the cost of it, rather than what the ad was trying to acheive, or at least after seeing it 2 or 3 times on different news items, it was lost to me, so i would imagine it would be lost on other people also

I think that when you see the advert as it's ment to be seen as an advert and not been discussed on the news it'll work well. It's certainly the first advert that I've seen that's had enough of an effect on me to make me want to donate something.

[WibXL]

Originally Posted by JagoPlasma

i wasnt even aware he had passed on!

i wondered why i hadnt seen him in a while and thought he was making a comeback on tv when i saw this advert.

how did they do it then? it looked very real. is it like that Elvis thing with a bit of extra work to write an audio script

I think it was a mix of old footage, a body double, some CGI and a voice actor for some or all of the words.

[Sonic67]

Originally Posted by unique

you might be right, but it seems the ad itself has overshadowed the meaning behind it. they showed clips on tv a few times, but the emphasis was on the creation of the ad and the cost of it, rather than what the ad was trying to acheive, or at least after seeing it 2 or 3 times on different news items, it was lost to me, so i would imagine it would be lost on other people also

If it hadn't been done the way it was would it have been discussed on Radio 4's PM programme, the newspapers, the TV, this forum etc? It has had huge coverage as a result.

I agree with the above by the way. A great loss. If you get the chance read his autobiographies. Some of the funniest books I've ever read mixed with some great stories.