It’s not exactly “Who Wants to Get a Colonoscopy?” but CBS Cares, the public-service division of the CBS Marketing Group, is promoting colon cancer awareness with a sweepstakes that will fly one lucky winner to New York for a three-night hotel stay and a stem-to-stern screening for the disease.
The contest lasts until April 30 and is open to anyone aged 40 to 79 during that period, except for those who’ve had a colonoscopy procedure in the past year or those with selected pre-existing medical conditions. Players can enter the sweepstakes by going to the Web site, filling out a form and answering three questions about colon cancer.
The answers to those questions don’t have to be correct to enter. Entries are limited to one per person. The drawing in the contest is scheduled for after May 4, 2009.
Interestingly, the name of the contest winner will not be disclosed due to prohibitions contained in patient privacy laws. Entrants who want to find out more about the winner will be able to learn their first and last initial and their city and state of residence by sending a written request to Manhasset NY-based Marden-Kane, the agency administering the drawing.
Public service spots for the “CBS Cares Colonoscopy Sweepstakes” began running Sunday, Feb. 22, during the highly rated CBS program “60 Minutes” and continued the next day with a spot during the network’s Monday comedy lineup.
The Web page for the sweepstakes, at http://promotions.mardenkane.com/cbs/cbscares/Index.cfm, includes a brief explanation of the pre-exam process and the colonoscopy itself, together with links to a print interview with Dr. Paul Miskovitz, the gastroenterology specialist who will perform the outpatient exam at New York’s Center for Specialty Care.
The site also includes links to the Web site of the National Cancer Institute. March is officially designated Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
CBS Cares has run other health-related promotions in its nine-year history, including PSAs about breast cancer, autism, depression and HIV awareness featuring stars from CBS network programming. This is the first time the division has included a sweepstakes in an awareness initiative.
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