Recently, there was a competition which challenged advertising agencies in London to design and communicate an engaging story for the Underground’s “Tube Car Panels”
[similiar to ads you see posted inside subway cars in the U.S.].The winning entry was submitted by the Communications Agency on behalf of their client, The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. It was picked from over 200 others designed by some of the best and well known creative writers in the industry.The winning Underground ad is an extension of the recent TV campaign where comedian Bob Monkhouse addresses a male audience from the grave about his illness, wishing he had done something about it before it was too late, and advising them to go to the doctors if they experience symptoms.

In June 2007, Monkhouse appeared posthumously on a TV ad promoting awareness of prostate cancer for Male Cancer Awareness Week. In the commercial, Monkhouse is seen in a graveyard next to his own gravestone talking about the disease seriously, combined with a humorous side to the ad which includes his trademark one-liners, like:

“What killed me kills one man per hour in Britain. That’s even more than my wife’s cooking”.

He ends the ad by saying

“As a comedian, I’ve died many deaths. Prostate cancer, I don’t recommend. I’d have paid good money to stay out of here. What’s it worth to you?”