A Colonoscopy Campaign for Gilligan’s Island Watchers

Here is a sample of the jingle's lyrics: "If you were a kid when Gilligan was marooned on a desert isle / it's time for your colonoscopy / it only takes a while / to prevent one of the most curable types of cancer that we see / just throw yourself a lifesaver / get a colonoscopy."

"The juxtaposition of ‘Gilligan' with ‘colonoscopy' was meant to lessen the anxiety and taboo associated with the screening, a gentle nudge to those over 50 that they were grown up and ready to be screened," Roeder says. "I had a lot of fun searching for these iconic trigger points. We may still have a few up our sleeves."

This approach was the right move for Good Samaritan because it gave the marketing team leeway to push the boundaries of the brand and have fun with the advertising, says Maria Stearns, healthcare team director and account supervisor for ab+c, the Baltimore-based agency that worked on the campaign.

"It was a message that was completely different than anyone else's in the market," she says. "It's also a campaign that has legs and can continue to evolve and maybe even cross service lines."

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