What's Up the Tri-Cities Health Board's Butt?

I had to dig a little to find this story.

A recent Colon Cancer Awareness campaign for the American Cancer Society was launched successfully in the southeastern region of Washington State. Running since last summer, the Yakima Health Department gave the campaign an approval to go ahead.

Billboard for Colon Cancer Awareness, Will Bryan Design.

Created by Will Bryan Design, the public awareness campaign is for the National Colorectal Roundtable and specifically targets the older demographic in rural communities of WA.

It comprises billboards, postcards, print and radio ads which run on the line:

"What's up your butt?"

Poster for Colon Cancer Awareness, Will Bryan Design

The visual components are accompanied by pictures of people with pained or shocked expressions on their faces. The senior citizens targetted, are prompted to get rectal examinations to check for colon cancer to help detect and treat the preventable disease.




Everything was running smoothly until earlier this week when the adjoining Tri-Cities and Benton Franklin Health Department reared up and blocked the campaign from appearing in its districts. This is despite the unanimous approval to extend the campaign's reach by the very same board just one month ago.

Probing further into this story, no reason was offered for the about face. A local survey showed 66 percent of people who saw the billboards reacted positively.

Personally, I believe the Tri-Cities Health Department are being a little too anal in rejecting this poll analysis. Frankly, it shows them to be acting very backward looking - and not in a good way.

I don't see what the big fuss is about a head-turning headline and a few innocent wordplays. The residents of southeast Washington should push for a better result.

It may very well save somebody's life.