How do you draw attention to the connection between a disease and broken bones? Try a mountain of casts.
That's what GSW Worldwide, an inVentiv health company and one of the largest healthcare advertising agencies in the world, is doing as it partners with
the National Bone Health Alliance (NBHA). The two have developed 2Million2Many, a national campaign aimed to raise awareness about the connection
between osteoporosis and broken bones and to advance the NBHA's 20/20 vision to reduce the rate of osteoporosis-related breaks 20 percent by the year
2020.
Osteoporosis is an invisible, passive and grossly undertreated condition that robs people of independence and even life. The 2Million2Many campaign was
created to disrupt the complacency of both consumers and health care professionals toward osteoporosis and specifically to activate women and men as
young as 50 to get follow up testing when they break a bone.
"Every year, there are 2 million broken bones caused by osteoporosis. And yet only two in 10 get a follow-up test or treatment for osteoporosis," says
Marcee Nelson, co-creator of the campaign at GSW Worldwide. "We need to help people visualize this impact, and to make it relevant to them now, while
they can do something to prevent it."
The campaign, which will include print ads, a microsite (www.2million2many.org), public service announcement and a documentary, was designed to "break"
three things:
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The news about the huge number of osteoporotic breaks in this country each year
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The stereotype of osteoporosis as a disease of little old ladies
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The pattern of treatment where breaks are treated in emergency rooms or urgent care settings with only 20 percent getting follow-up testing or
treatment
"More than 40 million Americans either live with or are at risk for developing osteoporosis. It is critical to remind consumers and health care
professionals that a bone break after the age of 50 can be a sign of osteoporosis. Often, the urgency around the trauma of breaking a bone ends with
immediate treatment, the setting of a cast," says David Lee, director of the National Bone Health Alliance. "That's the dynamic we're out to change
with the 2Million2Many campaign."
Cast Mountain, which is constructed with fiberglass casts and resin, is a 12' x 12' x 12' structure that represents the 5,500 broken bones that happen
in one day. It weighs 2,500 pounds. The Ohio State University orthopedics department at Carepoint East donated their time to help create the casts.
Cast Mountain launched at an osteoporosis symposium in Florida in late April.
Dawn R. Marinacci is vice president/director of marketing and public relations at GSW Worldwide, an inVentiv Health company.