Hip-hop group and TV host front ads

By AINSLEY THOMSON

Hip-hop group Nesian Mystik and former What Now presenter Jason Fa'afoi are the faces of the $2.7 million meningococcal vaccine advertising campaign.

Fa'afoi will feature in television and radio spots on Sunday, the day before the $200 million immunisation project starts in the high-risk areas of South and East Auckland.

The first advertisement in a series of three is aimed at the parents of schoolchildren and explains the consent forms for the vaccination.

The second, also starring Fa'afoi, will be targeted at parents of under 5s and starts next month.

Nesian Mystik will be in the third advertisement, likely to screen next year, which is aimed teenagers who have left school.

The $2.7 million set aside to promote the vaccinations is for the entire public information campaign, not just the television ads.

A Health Ministry spokesman said the ads would avoid graphic images of children affected by the disease, which leads to infection of the bloodstream (septicaemia) or swelling of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis).

"It was a concept we rejected quickly as not being appropriate because when you show people horrible things like that they turn off. It doesn't work," said spokesman Angus Barclay.

"It's appropriate for something like the LTSA trying to show people the horrors of driving without a seatbelt. It's not appropriate for when you are trying to convince people to get healthy."

Mr Barclay said the information booklets contained some images of children suffering from the disease.