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The Cologuard colon cancer testing is done very much with the help of Lillard’s proficiency in the subject of horror, beautifully marrying a comedic style with a brutally serious message. With a string of some of the very best horror productions such as Scream and Scooby-Doo under his belt, Lillard put together a funny commercial to tell adults 45 and older to get screened. The campaign educates people on a new non-invasive form of testing-out the endless array of horror stories-to basically try to take some fear away from being scared into screening for cancer.
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Matthew Lillard takes time off from haunting teenagers to give something a proper scare-doing a terrifying act of slightly inopportune and untimely screening for colon cancer. An actor who was of course cast in iconic scary roles and still thrives in the genre, he has now joined forces with a Cologuard campaign in the fight for public health, keeping in true Lillard fashion in a manner both amusing and unusually suited for such a heavy subject.
A pretty big emphasis is placed on those horror roots by Lillard. He suddenly emerges yelling “Hello?” several times in a very typical jump-scare manner, however, the punchline was going to be neither ghostly nor monstrous: “Polaguard colon cancer screening test? Oh no, did you think I was something scary?”
He then metaphorically lists what he actually is scared of: “Scary, like an ax murderer on the loose? Or a grown man with frosted tips? Forgetting to screen for colon cancer when you turn 45? No, that is scary.” The ad explains that the Cologuard test takes the scare out of colon cancer screening: “Has no prep and is non-invasive.” For Lillard’s last words: “No need to scream when you can screen. Am I right? You were in that film.”
Some of the few complaints were how Lillard was too idiosyncratically fun with the subject matter to put him under any other label, with half the comments focusing on his charm forever and half effectively describing the subject themselves.
“I feel like only you could do something serious like this and still have fun with it, never change!” wrote another user. The comment encapsulates some of the magic Lillard brought to the endeavor: a sincere warmth that made a health PSA feel less like a lecture and more like an enlightening conversation with a cool uncle.
And the jokes got even better. Comments kept highlighting the roast of “a grown man with frosted tips,” one saying “A grown man with frosted tips killed me.” One comment in the very few complimenting the aspect of the ad simply said, “10/10 for the marketing campaign.”
Besides the jokes, some of the posts hit a deep personal note for many. Cynthia Marie’s comment was truly special: “So glad you did this friend! From us CRC survivors… thank you! So glad to see so many more ways to get screened!” This shows just how important endorsements like this are in the real world for the support and visibility of those affected by colorectal cancer.
Another in-the-trenches one said: “Thank you so much for sharing the importance of this. My grandpa just recently beat colon cancer.” These accounts turn the comment section from just a bunch of fan feedback into a place of shared experience and support.
Naturally, some of them couldn’t resist joking around. “I guess you can say that’ll scare you shitless,” one fan said. Another chimed in, “Only if Matthew Lillard checks it for me 😂.” A third one chimed in with a more critical perspective: “false positives AND negatives, matt.”
Littered throughout are mentions of appreciation for Lillard for that authentic vibe. “I love how this man NEVER loses his essence,” one fan wrote. Another called him a “national treasure.” It is this almost continuous flow of feedback that suggests the campaign’s real success is built on Lillard’s credibility and likability.
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Matthew Lillard is turning his public image into a fulcrum for a major health agency. This campaign shows that a serious message need not lose personality and humor on the road from the abstract to the concrete. The Lillard example is, perhaps, a master class in mobilizing stardom for public good and making an uncomfortable topic at least intelligible and somewhat memorable. In the end, Lillard may even have scared the life out of a few people into actually caring for themselves, which is a win for everybody. He has also recently launched a new whiskey, and announced a horror collaboration with Ice Nine Kills.