Saturday, November 16, 2013

MD Anderson's Cancer "Moon Shot"

Earlier today I was clicking around at The Business Insider, and saw this ad, from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Clinic in Houston.  It puts forth a very ambitious vision, summoning up the memory of John F. Kennedy's "moon shot" speech of September 12, 1962--delivered, interestingly enough, in Houston.

Here're some glimpses of the ad:
Indeed, it's nice to see an entity, Anderson, that sets ambitious goals...

... ending cancer: 

This all heartening, of course.  

Curious as to this program, I went to YouTube, and discovered that this spot seems to be derived from a longer spot released by M.D Anderson back in September 2012.   It also has a strong message: 


And it, too, invokes JFK: 


And the space program:


It even details the cancers being targeted: 


Indeed, Anderson even seems eager to eliminate its "business model"--that is, treating cancer. 

This is all great, but I couldn't help notice one little discouraging item--more than a year after its release, the video had less than 18,000 views.  
That's not a crippling concern, if the right 18,000 people are watching.  Or, of course, if Anderson's end cancer message is otherwise punching through.  But so far, at least, it seems that it isn't.

That's not Anderson's fault; it's got all the right ideas, and it's obviously trying hard to get its message out.  The problem--okay, let's be positive here, and call it an "opportunity not yet seized"--is that political leaders have not yet grasped the idea that curing disease is a political winner.  

Let's hope that changes.  








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